Shadow Home Affairs Minister James Paterson is calling on the federal government to hit Chinese-backed hackers with sanctions after Australia joined with the United States, the United Kingdom and New Zealand to accuse Beijing of orchestrating a sweeping campaign of cyber espionage targeting voters, parliamentarians and companies in the West.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
The UK and the US have already unveiled sanctions on state-backed hackers they accuse of being behind “malicious” cyber attacks which hit Britain’s electoral commission and British MPs critical of China, as well as a host of companies, individuals and politicians in the US.
“Fortunately, in this instance, the National Cyber Security Centre worked with the impacted organisations to contain the activity and remove the actor shortly after they were able to access the network,” she said.
But she said New Zealand would not follow the lead of the US or the UK and target hackers because the country did not have a broader legal framework to impose autonomous sanctions.
Shadow Home Affairs Minister James Paterson said while the public attribution of blame was welcome, the government needed to go “one step further” and hit Chinese state-backed hackers with Magnitsky-style sanctions.
China has denied the accusations of espionage, with New Zealand’s embassy in Wellington calling them “groundless and irresponsible” in a statement issued Tuesday afternoon.
Federal Labor MP Peter Khalil, who is chair of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, told the ABC that the government was “enhancing our cyber security, intelligence and our defence capabilities to deter foreign adversaries who would seek to use cyber attacks, grey zone attacks and force to reach their objectives and diminish our democratic society”.
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