Phone hacking exposed Hong Kong activists

Greg Hunt has become the second cabinet member to have his government phone show signs of ‘suspicious activity’.

Health Minister Greg Hunt in question time. Picture: Getty Images.

The details of pro-democracy Hong Kongers were provided to someone impersonating Simon Birmingham, after the Finance Minister’s phone was compromised and used to set up a Telegram account.

The Australian can also reveal that Health Minister Greg Hunt has become the second cabinet member to have his government phone show signs of “suspicious activity” with the Health Minister’s number also used to set up a Telegram account.

The AFP has launched a probe into whether Senator Birmingham had his phone hacked after it began sending unsolicited messages to his contact book, with one of the recipients being asked by the impostor: “Do you have any contacts in Hong Kong?”

The Australian has confirmed the person then handed over details of Hong Kongers without realising they were speaking to a cyber-hacker.

The South Australian senator told a finance and public administration estimates hearing on Tuesday the hacker had gained access to those in his government phone’s contact list that also had the Telegram app.

There was a separate request from the person pretending to be Senator Birmingham for money to be transferred to a bank account located outside Australia.

“For a somewhat sophisticated process of pretending to be somebody else, it ultimately ends in the relatively crude attempt to get somebody to transfer money to an international account,” Senator Birmingham told the hearing.

Mr Hunt’s office also confirmed to The Australian that the AFP was investigating whether the Health Minister’s phone had been compromised after someone pretended to be the minister in a message exchange.

“A cyber security attempt to impersonate the minister has been referred to the AFP and investigations are under way,” a spokesman for Mr Hunt said.

One person that had received messages from what they thought was Senator Birmingham, who spoke to The Australian on the condition of anonymity, said they were concerned about the scam’s repercussions.

“Management of this issue has left a bit to be desired for those involved, which was surprising given his office is one of the better performing ministerial offices in government,” they said.

Cyber security expert Robert Potter told The Australian the string of cyberattacks should be a sign to cabinet ministers to bolster their security.

“Whether or not it’s been targeted, it’s been highly successful; once you’ve targeted one person it’s much easier to target another,” he said. “They need to be careful to use encrypted messaging apps and two-party authentication.

“When it comes to cabinet ministers there’s no such thing as a friendly intelligence agency outside of the Five Eyes.”

Senator Birmingham told Estimates he had changed handset devices since becoming aware of the issue and his old mobile phone was now being examined by the AFP.

“The AFP are seeking to, through their data security processes, attempting to ascertain how any data was was secured abd are working to try to get Telegram to shut down the false account,” he said.

The AFP investigation comes as the Australian National Audit Office warned that Scott Morrison and Attorney-General Christian Porter’s departments were among nine top government entities to have failed cyber resilience checks.

A report from Auditor-General Grant Hehir found that most commonwealth government departments assessed had “ad hoc” cyber security systems despite the “significant threat” posed by online attacks, with major ­government departments failing to fully implement strategies to safeguard ­information.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has warned government MPs of the suspicious activity, telling them to report any issues to the Department of Parliamentary Services, ICT and the AFP if necessary.