Australian spy chief warns Chinese hackers are ‘probing’ critical networks for espionage and sabotage

Australia’s intelligence chief Mike Burgess has issued a warning that China-backed hacker groups are actively probing and, in some cases, infiltrating the country’s critical infrastructure networks. Burgess, head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, identified at least two Chinese government-backed groups—Volt Typhoon and Salt Typhoon—engaged in espionage and pre-positioning for potential sabotage. Volt Typhoon is targeting essential systems such as power, water, and transportation, with the capability to cause widespread outages and disrupt energy and water supplies. This aligns with U.S. intelligence assessments that Chinese hackers have implanted malware in critical infrastructure to enable disruptive cyberattacks, particularly aimed at undermining responses to a possible future invasion of Taiwan. Additionally, Salt Typhoon has focused on telecommunications infrastructure, hacking into over 200 phone and internet companies, as well as cloud and data center providers, to steal sensitive data like call records. The FBI has issued warnings to prevent compromised communications, and similar breaches have been reported in Canada.