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The 'quicker, easier, nastier' national security threat: Australia's intelligence chief says China is "nation's top hacking threat" (www.canberratimes.com.au)

submitted 1 month ago by randomname@scribe.disroot.org to c/world@quokk.au

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cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/11439661

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The nation's top spy chief agrees that foreign powers are active at a broader level across Australia's online space.

ASIO chief Mike Burgess identified China as the nation's top hacking threat, with its understanding of the domestic telecommunications network now so sophisticated, it could "turn them off, should they need to".

"They are working actively to understand our systems," ASIO chief Mike Burgess told the Mitchell Unlimited podcast.

"I believe in some cases they could do it today," he said.

Mr Burgess urged calm among Australians, as it was unlikely our communications systems would be turned off unless we were at war.

But he warned people should not have highly sensitive conversations in their cars or near their phones, given foreign governments' ability to listen in.

...

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[–] randomname@scribe.disroot.org 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

@atro_city@fedia.io

China is the nation’s “top threat”.

Yes. And this is no surprise. Chinese carmakers, very much as any Chinese companies, operate under the rule of the Chinese party-state. The regime in Beijing suppresses dissent, people forcibly disappear, they even threaten your family members if you are deemed to be a threat to the party, and it purposefully misleads its own population through a ruthless disinformation machinery, just to name some examples.

Does that mean they’ll invest in local industries and become more technologically and resource sovereign? Will they educate their citizens about democracy, critical thinking, and how to recognise propaganda? Will they stop trying to legislate backdoors into all technology, reduce surveillance, and data collection?

Not that these you questions have anything to do with the linked article's topic, but a change in economic policy has already been going on for some time. It's slow and late, and I hope it gets a bit better with cooperation with the EU, Canada, New Zealand, and others.

An EU alliance could also help with better privacy laws, amongst others. But we must fight for more democracy. It's a battle that never ends as human rights are not a given. Just look at China.

[Edit typo.]

[–] atro_city@fedia.io 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Not that these you questions have anything to do with the linked article's topic

How do technological backdoors have nothing to do with hacking? The Australian state is also trying to force its children (and thus adults) to hand over ID to access social media. That's just more data for hackers to retrieve and use for nefarious goals. Especially if it's biometric.

How is increased surveillance not an issue? A car that surveils you is definitely a hacking target and the more the state legislates that there should be more surveillance, the more things there will be to hack.

How does tech sovereignty not prevent hacks? Opensource stuff has more eyes on it and the more states use it, the more paid people will develop it and check it.

And you're talking about cars: imported stuff from China means it can come "pre-hacked". Local production will mean less chance of backdoors by foreign actors.

I think it has very much everything to do with the article's topic.

[–] randomname@scribe.disroot.org 1 points 1 month ago

I hope we in the Western democracies will re-industrialize quick and everything that possible on our own again, and I am a big fan of open source.

But even then, I don't think that China will stop being a rogue state. The Chinese government will remain the biggest threat actor.