Australia\u2019s cooperation with the United States and Britain to develop an Australian fleet of submarines powered by U.S. nuclear technology is a likely target of state-sponsored cyber-espionage, the nation\u2019s digital spy agency said on Wednesday. The Australian Signals Directorate reported a 23% increase in cybercrimes in the country and a 14% increase in the average cost of each crime in its latest annual online threat assessment for the fiscal year that ended on June 30. The report highlights China\u2019s role in backing a group of hackers, known as the Volt Typhoon, that targeted U.S. critical infrastructure including military facilities on Guam. It warns that the same techniques could be used against Australian infrastructure as part of information-gathering or disruptive activities.<\/p>\n
Potential targets include the AUKUS agreement \u2013 an acronym for Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States \u2013 under which the U.S. will share its nuclear submarine technology secrets. \u201cThe AUKUS partnership, with its focus on nuclear submarines and other advanced military capabilities, is likely a target for state actors looking to steal intellectual property for their own military programs,\u201d the report said. \u201cCyber operations are increasingly the preferred vector for state actors to conduct espionage and foreign interference,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n
Defense Minister Richard Marles said state online actors\u2019 increased interest in Australian infrastructure, including the submarine program, demonstrated the need for greater investment in the nation\u2019s cyber-defence capabilities. Marles said the government would double the Australian Signals Directorate\u2019s online capacity, investing 10 billion Australian dollars ($6.5 billion) over a decade. Security analysts say China is the biggest state actor in cybercrime in Australia, followed by Russia and then Iran.<\/p>\n
Mike Burgess, director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, the nation\u2019s main domestic spy agency, said last month that Beijing was \u201cengaged in the most sustained, sophisticated and scaled theft of intellectual property and expertise in human history.\u201d The new report on Australia\u2019s growing online threats comes as Australia improves relations with China. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese this month became the first Australian leader in seven years to visit China. Marles described Australia\u2019s relationship with China as \u201ccomplex.\u201d \u201cWe\u2019ve never pretended that this relationship is easy. We value, clearly, a productive relationship with China. They\u2019re our largest trading partner, so it\u2019s right to be investing in that relationship,\u201d Marles told Australian Broadcasting Corp. \u201cBut China has been a source of security anxiety for our country and we prepare for that as well,\u201d Marles added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Australia\u2019s cooperation with the United States and Britain to develop an Australian fleet of submarines powered by U.S. nuclear technology\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":11342,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[186],"tags":[3267,1539,158,715,535,3268,290,3269,339,95],"class_list":["post-11341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-aukus","tag-australia","tag-china","tag-espionage","tag-iran","tag-nuclear-submarines","tag-russia","tag-state-sponsored-cyber-attacks","tag-uk","tag-usa"],"reading_time":"3 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}