Australian weather bureau hacked by foreign spies, report says

Foreign spies installed malicious software on an Australian government agency’s computer system, stealing an unknown number of documents, an official report revealed on Wednesday, stopping short of naming the country involved.

China has previously been accused of hacking websites run by the US government and by private firms. In 2013 Chinese hackers were accused of stealing the top-secret blueprints of Australia’s new intelligence agency headquarters.

The government’s Australian Cyber Security Centre report released on Wednesday attributed “the primary compromise to a foreign intelligence service” but did not name any country as responsible.

“We don’t narrow it down to specific countries, and we do that deliberately,” said Dan Tehan, who assists Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on cybersecurity.

“But what we have indicated is that cyberespionage is alive and well,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.