Australian Parliament cyber attack led by foreign country: PM

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Monday that cyber attack on the country's Parliament earlier this month, was carried out by a "sophisticated" group controlled by a foreign government.

He however, did not identify the country behind the attack, reports Efe news.

"During the course of this work, we also became aware that the networks of some political parties - Liberal, Labor and Nationals - have also been affected," Morrison told in Parliament in Canberra, referring to the attack on the computer networks on February 8.

The Prime Minister said that a "sophisticated state actor" was behind the attack .

"Our security agencies have detected this activity and acted decisively to confront it. They are securing these systems and protecting users.

"Let me be clear, there is no evidence of any electoral interference," the premier said, referring to the general election that will take place in May.

"We have put in place a number of measures to ensure the integrity of our electoral system."

After the attack, the legislature adopted a series of measures, such as changing passwords, even though data was not stolen or damaged.

In 2015, the Australian Meteorological Office's computers were subject to a massive cyber attack allegedly orchestrated by China, which led the Australian government to strengthen security measures against foreign espionage.

In December, Australia joined the US and the UK in condemning the supposed campaign of cyber attacks on intellectual property and worldwide trade data attributed to China.

These countries said the group known as Advanced Persistent Threat 10 (APT 10), allegedly linked to the Ministry of State Security of China, was responsible for a large-scale attack.

The National Cyber Security Centre (UK) concluded that APT 10 was responsible, at least since 2016, for attacks on information technology and infrastructure services in many organiSations, and on large and medium-sized companies in Australia and the rest of the world.