ASIO at no risk from hack attack

THE building details of ASIO's new headquarters in Canberra, allegedly hacked by Chinese cyber spies, were stolen three years ago and no longer pose any threat to the agency's operations.

As China strongly denied allegations it mounted a cyber attack to steal the plans for ASIO's Canberra headquarters, sources familiar with the breach moved to play down its significance.

The Australian has been told the breach occurred in 2010, or possibly 2009. Although construction of the headquarters on Canberra's Constitution Avenue started in 2008, the discovery of the breach meant ASIO had the opportunity to alter the designs of the building to reduce the risk of espionage.

It is understood the layout of the $630 million building was accessed through a contractor working on the building, which is yet to be completed.

The breach shocked those familiar with the intensive security arrangements surrounding the construction of the building.
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One cyber security expert, who asked not to be named, said anything to do with the building's plans would have been "air-gapped", or stored on a system or computer not connected to the internet. The same restrictions would apply to contractors working on the site.

However, a second insider said it was presumptive to assume the data had been stolen through a cyber attack, saying it might have been obtained from a source such as a memory stick.

Although embarrassing for ASIO, sources with knowledge of the incident said its significance had been overplayed.

One said ASIO had since taken steps to counter the breach, but would give no details as to what those steps were.

A second questioned what the Chinese could realistically do with schematics, given the building itself would be one of the most secure in Australia.

A spokesman for ASIO declined to comment on any aspect of the claims first raised by the ABC's Four Corners program on Monday. A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Canberra told The Australian the claims were baseless and some of them made with ulterior motives.

Julia Gillard told parliament the report on the Chinese cyber attack was inaccurate but she would not say what was wrong with it. "As the Attorney-General has stated, neither he nor the director-general of ASIO intend to comment further on these inaccurate reports," the Prime Minister told parliament.

Opposition legal affairs spokesman George Brandis said he had asked for an ASIO briefing on the allegations.

The Chinese embassy spokesman said that like other countries, China was facing a serious threat of cyber attacks and it was one of the world's main victims of hacking.

"China attaches importance to network security issues, and resolutely opposes all forms of hacker attacks," the spokesman said.

He said Chinese law prohibited hacker attacks and other acts of sabotage against internet security.

The last time something similar happened the boot was on the other foot, with Australian agencies accused in 1995 of bugging the new Chinese embassy in Canberra.