Scott Morrison Just Revealed That All Of Australia’s Major Political Parties Have Been Hacked

If you thought Australian politics couldn’t disintegrate any further into chaos this month, think again. Prime Minister Scott Morrison just revealed that the entire Parliament, plus all major political parties, have been hacked, apparently by another country. Oops?

We already knew that the Australian Parliament computer system was hacked several weeks ago, though at the time the ABC reported that the attack had been caught early, and that it was unclear whether any data had actually been taken.

Today, Scott Morrison announced that in the course of investigating that hack, cybersecurity authorities realised that things were actually a bit more serious: in addition to the parliamentary computer systems, the hackers managed to access the computer networks of the Liberal Party, Labor and the Nationals.

Morrison also added that at this stage, “our cyber experts believe that a sophisticated state actor is responsible for this malicious activity” — in other words, it appears that another country has launched a cyber-attack on all of Australia’s major political parties just months before a federal election.

Scott Morrison says a "sophisticated state actor" is behind an attack on the computer networks of the Liberal, Labor and National parties – says security agencies have addressed the "malicious activity" https://t.co/srdjZBXFix pic.twitter.com/fIBChSh38r

— Josh Butler (@JoshButler) February 18, 2019

Why’s this such a big deal? Well, Bill Shorten accidentally explained when he got up in Parliament today to say that political parties can be a “soft target” for hackers. “Political parties are small organisations with only a few full-time staff, and they collect, store and use large amounts of information about voters and communities,” he said.

Shorten: "Political parties are small organisations with only a few full-time staff, they collect, store and use large amounts of information about voters and communities. These institutions can be a soft target." ?

— Jackson Gothe-Snape (@jacksongs) February 18, 2019

There’s also the fact that late last year, both major parties voted in favour of the Assistance & Access bill, which goes against all expert advice to weaken encryption and data security in Australia. All in all, this isn’t inspiring much confidence in either party’s ability to use computers, let alone use them to protect sensitive information.

Is anyone talking about how the encryption-busting Assistance & Access bill has made it _more_ likely that our political institutions will be hacked?

Both LNP and ALP can claim credit for making Australian democracy less secure because of that. Good work. :golfclap: #auspol

— Tom Sulston (@tomsulston) February 18, 2019

Scott Morrison declined to reveal any details about what data, if any, the hackers accessed, but the fact that they managed to breach both Parliament and the major political parties’ systems means they potentially had access to a huge amount of information with the potential to sway the upcoming federal election. At the moment, the government is saying there’s “no evidence of any electoral interference”, but two weeks ago there was no evidence that this hack affected major political parties either.

Morrison also refused to reveal any information about which country is suspected to be behind the hack. For now, basically all the government is prepared to say is that “we have put in place a number of measures to ensure the integrity of our electoral system”. Or in other words, “trust us”.

The cyber attack on Parliament and all major parties is being described as "unprecedented" in its level of sophistication. It is a state actor but agencies aren't willing to call which one. Only a handful are thought capable: Israel, Russia, China and the US. #auspol @9news

— Chris Uhlmann (@CUhlmann) February 18, 2019