Urgent warning to secure email networks after Chinese-backed hack of Microsoft Outlook

Australian businesses told to secure email networks after major Chinese-backed hack of Microsoft Outlook.

Australian businesses have been told to urgently secure their Microft Outlook email systems as the ACSC ­upgraded its warnings. Picture: Alexander Pohl/Zuma Press

Cyber-security officials are urging Australians to immediately secure their digital networks after a major Chinese infiltration of Microsoft’s email systems, warning too many of the nation’s businesses are exposed to attacks.

US President Joe Biden is setting up an emergency task force after the tech giant revealed a Chinese state-backed hacker group, known as HAFNIUM, had exploited vulnerabilities in its ­Exchange systems, which allow businesses and governments to store emails.

Amid fears 7000 servers in Australia and more than 30,000 in the US are affected by the threat, the Australian Cyber ­Security Centre on Tuesday urged the Morrison government and the states to urgently “patch” their email networks and protect them from state actors who sought to make use of the Microsoft vulnerabilities.

Labor is demanding the government take responsibility for responding to the cyber attacks and explain who could be affected, warning that Defence Minister Linda Reynolds’ extended sick leave harmed Australia’s ability to address the threat.

Australian businesses have been told to urgently secure their email systems as the ACSC ­upgraded its warnings on Tuesday. “The ACSC has identified a large number of Australian ­organisations (which) are yet to patch vulnerable versions of Microsoft Exchange, leaving them vulnerable,” a security alert on the ACSC website states.

“The ACSC urges these organisations to do so urgently.”

Microsoft has warned users of its Outlook email app that hackers may have been able to monitor and steal emails and install spying tools on computers.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman in the past week has denied Beijing had any involvement in the hacking.

Mr Biden’s government has launched a multi-agency effort to tackle the cyber attack, led by the White House’s National Security Council, after the US was the main target of the hackers.

Responsibility for cybersecurity is divided between Home ­Affairs Minister Peter Dutton and Senator Reynolds. Assistant Defence Minister Andrew Hastie will take on Senator Reynolds’ cyber duties during her extended sick leave but The Australian has reported he is yet to receive an ­official charter letter on his role.

A spokesman for the Department of Home Affairs said on Tuesday the ACSC was continuing to investigate the Microsoft cyber-infiltrations.

“The ACSC provided notification to federal, state and territory government cyber security representatives of the vulnerabilities and the urgent need to patch,” the department spokesman said.

Opposition cybersecurity spokesman Tim Watts said it was not clear who in the government was in charge of the response to the attacks. “We’ve heard nothing from the Prime Minister, the Defence Minister, the Acting ­Defence Minister or the Assistant Defence Minister on this extraordinarily serious situation,” he said.