Prime Minister Scott Morrison to propose bill designed to fight cyberattacks

Following a recent cyberattack which almost shut down power to millions of homes, Prime Minister Scott Morrison says criminal gangs as well as foreign actors are involved.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that a cyberattack which almost brought down a Queensland power generator showed the need for parliament to pass laws to protect critical infrastructure from overseas actors.

Saying that it’s not only “state-based actors” which pose a threat to power stations, electricity grids, banking systems and transport networks, Mr Morrison said that the Australian government worked with the targeted company to fend off last month’s cyberattack.

“(We) took early action in engaging with those who were directly under threat, and we were able to ensure that the worst of those scenarios did not eventuate … it was the early action of our cyber authorities that avoided a bad outcome there,” he said.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the cyber attack showed the need for new laws to protect critical infrastructure. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Damian Shaw

The Daily Telegraph revealed on Wednesday that Chinese hackers were only minutes away from shutting down two thermal coal power plants in Queensland.

If the attack on November 27 was successful the hackers would have shut down 3500 megawatts of power out of the grid, effectively switching off the electricity to between 1.4 million and three million homes.

The power plants operator CS Energy separated its corporate and operational systems thwarting the attack with less than an hour before the hackers would have been able to shut down the generators.

On Wednesday, Mr Morrison said that along with state-based hackers, criminal ransom gangs were also a major threat, though intelligence experts say that there is often a “fine line” between the two.

Chinese President Xi Jinping. Picture: Greg Baker/AFP

To allow the government to help companies fight cyberattacks, the government is proposing new laws that will not only expand the definition of critical infrastructure, but also increase the compliance obligations for companies.

“Criminal actors are in this space and they’re looking to take advantage of Australians, Australian businesses and what’s really important, particularly with the new laws that we will pass … will further strengthen that around critical infrastructure,” he said.

“So we’re investing heavily in cyber security, heavily in cyber space, and the AUKUS agreement itself highlighted, particularly the technological areas in these domains, to ­ensure that our partnerships with the US and the UK can mean Australia can have the best possible defences when it comes to those cyber threats.”

He declined to comment on the origins of the attack as it was an intelligence matter, saying, “I wasn’t drawing any conclusions about the origins of this, and nor would I.”

A Russian hacking group reportedly claimed responsibility for the cyberattack on the power company.

According to media reports, a group known as Conti has said it was behind the November 27 incident at CS Energy.

However, intelligence sources have not ruled out Chinese involvement, saying one had to be wary of the claims of criminal ransomware gangs.

“Just because a Russian group says it was involved doesn’t mean they acted alone,” an intelligence source familiar with the incident said.

“If they were involved that in no way means a Chinese group was not.”

Recent reports have suggested Chinese and Russian hackers have been working together to attack Western infrastructure, with hacking intelligence group Flashpoint noting in a report last month that they had observed “an increase in recent weeks of Mandarin and Chinese-speaking threat actors on (Russian ransomware forum RAMP) as well as other illicit communities across the deep and dark web.”

Originally published as Prime Minister Scott Morrison to propose bill designed to fight cyberattacks