Defence intelligence officials will take the unprecedented step of secretly briefing Australia’s political party leaders and administrators to warn them they are vulnerable to the Russian-style cyber-attacks and espionage that rocked the US election.
For the first time, the Australian Signals Directorate has been asked by the government to advise political party bosses on how to protect against cyber attacks and on the use of covert nation-state manipulation of political issues and elections.
The Australian has learned that the key administrators and political leaders of the parties represented in parliament will be called to a classified briefing by the ASD’s Australian Cyber Security Centre when parliament resumes.
Malcolm Turnbull and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on Cyber Security Dan Tehan will receive a high-level briefing today on the “offensive” capabilities put in place by the ASD.
Although the Australian government admitted for the first time last year that it possessed offensive cyber capabilities, it is believed defence intelligence has only recently addressed offensive capability in response to politically motivated cyber threats.
This week the Prime Minister will write to the Opposition and minor party leaders and officials, inviting them to a secret briefing early next month to outline the risks, the measures needed to protect their databases and advise how to mitigate attacks.
A senior government source said the threat should not be underestimated, particularly in the current dynamic of the Australian parliament, where malicious activity could quickly change the political landscape.
The elevation of cyber security to recognise electoral and political threats comes as Indonesia requests the Australian government formally include cyber security in their next bilateral national security dialogue.
Mr Turnbull confirmed to The Australian that he would offer a classified briefing to his political party opponents, saying cyber attacks were a threat to democracy, above politics, and should be taken seriously by all parties.
The briefing would be offered to Bill Shorten and Labor’s national secretary Noah Carroll, Liberal Party federal director Tony Nutt, Pauline Hanson, Nick Xenophon and the Greens.
Each would have to undertake to respect its classified status.
“In recognition of the importance of the issue as an ongoing national security concern, I will be inviting all interested parties to a special briefing from the ACSC and my adviser on cyber security, Alastair MacGibbon, on how to further strengthen their cyber security,” Mr Turnbull said.
“We all have a role to play to ensure our cyber security and that includes the custodians of our electoral system and democracy.”
Mr Tehan told The Australian that the risk was present not only for the federal electoral system but was relevant to all parties, with a number of state elections due in the next two years.
“The use of cyber to maliciously influence the democratic process is a recent development in statecraft and we need the proper protections in place in Australia to prevent it happening here,” he said. “While there is no evidence our electoral system has been the target of such an attack, electoral authorities work with the ACSC to continue to improve and protect our systems.”
The US Department of Homeland Security and the FBI released a brief last month describing how alleged Russian intelligence agents leaked emails from the Democratic National Committee to allegedly influence the outcome of the US election.
It is thought two spies leaked 19,000 embarrassing emails after getting into the DNC system using a spear-phishing email — one that appears to be from a known contact — that was opened by a worker, activating malware that allowed access to encrypted information.
A warning to Australia was first raised by former Australian Security Intelligence Organisation director-general David Irvine, who coined the term “covert cyber influencing” in a speech to the Australian Institute for International Affairs late last year.
“It is not simply espionage or the sabotage of infrastructure and war-fighting capabilities,” he said. “Covert attempts to influence political thinking have long been an element of the art of intelligence. Social media gives foreign states, as well as any number of non-state private-interest groups, the ability to influence public opinion by saturating the social cyber-sphere with carefully targeted information, misinformation, malicious gossip, innuendo or accusations, which are taken up by the mainstream media and which can spook our politicians against objective decision-making. Of course, politics was ever thus, but the internet provides a new and potent vehicle for this phenomenon of ‘cyber influencing’ for political gain.
“If the reports are true and it was indeed Russian intelligence groups that penetrated the Democratic National Committee’s email system and, in the intelligence equivalent of a hand grenade, deliberately provided the emails to WikiLeaks to foist upon a bemused world, then we have a modern example of covert cyber influencing — presumably to disrupt and stabilise the Clinton campaign.”
Mr Turnbull struck a bilateral cyber defence arrangement with the US last year.
The elevation of cyber security to the national security space in the bilateral relationship with Indonesia will be discussed when Mr Tehan, Attorney-General George Brandis and Justice Minister Michael Keenan meet Indonesian officials early next month.
Source: theaustralian.com.au