Chinese hackers have stolen the blueprint for the new headquarters of Australia's intelligence agency even before it opened, according to a television investigation that could prove embarrassing to the government and its largest trading partner.
The government refused to confirm the allegations aired on Monday in an Australian Broadcasting Corporation documentary and insisted that they would not damage relations with the world's second-largest economy.
"We have enormous areas of co-operation with China," said Australia's foreign affairs minister Bob Carr on Tuesday. "I won't comment on whether the Chinese have done what is being alleged or not."
Mr Carr insisted that reports Chinese hackers had stolen the top-secret blueprints to Australia's new A$630m (US$609m) spy headquarters would have "absolutely no implications" for the "strategic partnership" with its biggest trading partner. Australia supplies China with half its seaborne iron ore and a quarter of its imported coal.
In a programme aired on Monday, the ABC alleged the blueprints for the new headquarters of the Australia Security Intelligence Operation had been stolen from a contractor in a "cyber hit" traced to a server in China. The report also claimed several government departments, including defence and foreign affairs, had been breached in sustained hacking operations. Australian companies with interests in China had also been targeted by hackers, the report claimed.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Beijing opposed hacking in any form and questioned what evidence the ABC report relied on.
"Since it is technically untraceable, it is very difficult to find the source and identify the hacker,'' Mr Hong said. "Therefore we have no idea what is the evidence for their report in which they make the claim with such certainty."
Last month, Australia signed a historic pact with China and was granted direct currency trading rights. The agreement locks in annual meetings between the Australian prime minister and the Chinese premier, and formal co-operation on a range of issues including climate change and international aid.
The ruling Labor government has also backed away from its previous confrontational approach to China, which is no longer viewed as a military threat.
However, the latest allegations have added to growing concerns in Australia, which is also a close ally of the US, about aggressive state-sponsored hacking by China. These include claims the Reserve Bank of Australia was infiltrated by a malicious Chinese-developed computer programme seeking intelligence on G20 negotiations in 2012.
In addition, Huawei, the Chinese telecoms equipment maker, was last year banned from bidding for construction contracts on Australia's broadband network on the advice of Australia's intelligence services.
One of the companies named in the ABC investigation, Adelaide-based Codan, said it had taken "strong action" to protect its information from Chinese-based counterfeit gold detector manufacturers.
"In response to recent media speculation about computer hacking . . . the company has no evidence that any intellectual property in either its metal detection or communications business has been obtained by third parties."
However, Julia Gillard, the Australian prime minister,said the ABC report contained "a number of unsubstantiated allegations".
"As the attorney-general has stated neither he nor the director-general of ASIO intend to comment further on these inaccurate reports in accordance with the longstanding practice of both sides of politics not to comment on very specific intelligence matters," she said.
The new ASIO building, which overlooks Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra, has suffered delays and cost overruns and was meant to have been operational in April.
ASIO is now expecting to take possession of the building in the latter half of 2013, but the hackers probably already knew that.
Additional reporting by AP
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29 May, 2013
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