Australian PM says country under cyber attacks by 'state-based actor'

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday said that the country is under cyberattack, targetting a "range of sectors" and the blamed it on a "sophisticated state-based cyber actor", with suspicions falling on China.

"This activity is targeting Australian organisations across a range of sectors, including all levels of government, industry, political organisations, education, health, essential service providers and operators of other critical infrastructure," Morrison said in a press conference.

He also warned the people of "specific risks" and an increased frequency of attacks and said that a range of sensitive organisations had been hit.

Blaming "sophisticated state-based cyber actor", Morrison, however, did not name the culprit, saying that only one out of a handful of states could be behind this.

However, suspicions immediately grew on China as both Canberra and Beijing are in the middle of a heightened row, which first began after the former questioned the latter over its response to the coronavirus outbreak.

China recently has also imposed trade sanctions on Australian products and sentenced to death an Australian citizen on drug smuggling charges.

Australia's public broadcaster ABC mentioned "senior sources" to claim that China was believed to be behind such attacks.

Last year Australia's parliament and political parties were targetted by state-backed players, with China emerging as the likely culprit.

Canberra's former spymaster in 2019 accused Beijing of an "insidious" and systematic campaign of espionage and influence-peddling in an attempt to "take over" Australia's political system

Meanwhile, the Australian PM has warned opposition and state leaders of the cyberattacks.

Morrison did not provide details on the type of attacks that had taken place but said no personal data had been affected and many of the attempts were unsuccessful.