Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Friday that
"We know it is a sophisticated, state-based cyber actor because of the scale and nature of the targeting and the tradecraft used," Mr Morrison said.
"The Australian government is aware of and alert to the threat of cyber attacks."
He would not say which country was behind the attacks.
However, the ABC reported that government sources had confirmed the attacker was China, while Australian Strategic Policy Institute executive director Peter Jennings told The Australian it was "very clear" that Beijing was behind the attack.
Asked if it was China, Mr Morrison said: "The Australian government is not making any public attribution about these matters." Source: AAP
What does the Australian Chinese community think of this?
Mark Ji, a Chinese Australian software engineer in Melbourne, thinks that Mr Morrison's statement "lacks details, and the intention is unclear".
"[In the speech] the attack was initiated by clicking an attachment which loads a program to steal the information stored on the computer. This is a passive attack [as it requires the recipient to click on the attachment first]. This is contradictory to what the PM said. A 'large scale' attack won't be a passive one."
At the same time, Mr Ji throws doubt on the intention of the speech. "Is he warning all Australian citizens? He must be more specific so people can get the message."
"It looks like he's just taking his position [against China]."
Yun Jiang, director of the Australian think tank China Policy Research Centre, believes that Mr Morrison's speech has led to more questions.
"China's cyber attacks on Australia is not new information. This is what most people have known for a long time, and this time the prime minister has not announced any new details, so I don't know why he announced this."
Australia and China have been embroiled in a political tug of war over the past two months following calls from Canberra for an independent investigation into the source of COVID-19.
Beijing has, in turn, intensified its criticism of Australia by calling on its students to rethink choosing Australia as an educational destination.
Can news of the cyber attack make the relationship worse?
China has not officially responded to Mr Morrison’s statement and the reports in the Australian media.
“Since Australian officials do not clearly indicate the source of the attack, China will not admit that it is an attacker, so this will affect Australia-China relations. But not too much," Ms Jiang said.
But Ms Jiang believes, "if these discussions become more intense, it will be detrimental to Australia-China relations.”
Mr Morrison’s decision not to name China as the orchestrator of the attack was a good move, says IT Associate Professor Joseph Liu from Monash University.
"Many hackers can use technology to hide their identities, so it is difficult for us to have evidence to show which country the [hacker] came from.
"So I think the prime minister's approach today is very correct."
Suellyn Lin, from the community organisation, Multicultural Alliance Australia, said: "I think the prime minister has done a good job with this cyber attack. The prime minister has not charged who initiated the attack."
She said both countries needed to stop throwing barbs at each other.
"Everyone should sit down and talk politely between the countries," she said, adding that as a Chinese Australian, she feared that her community could become the victim of unwarranted criticism.
“We Chinese will also be injured."
