China behind the Australian BoM cyberattack?

Chinese hackers have cracked the Bureau of Meteorology supercomputer, which links to other agencies such as the Department of Defence, according to an ABC report.

It is reported that one motive behind the attack could be to compromise weather forecasting so that if affects Australia’s military aircraft from operating properly.

It is also reported that the damage of the attack could costs hundreds of millions of dollars to fix over years, as it also affects other agencies that link to its supercomputer. The bureau owns one of Australia’s largest supercomputers.

However, according to a report today by The Australian, the chief of the General Staff of the Chinese ­People’s Liberation Army, Fang Fenghui, and chief of Australian Defence Force, Mark Binskin, plan to upgrade their cooperation in jointly tackling terrorism in the region.

The report also stated that Australia’s Defence Minister, Marise Payne, plans to visit China next year to promote further defence cooperation between Australia and China.

In March this year, the Chinese government confirmed it has a cyberwarfare unit in its The Science of Military Strategy publication, which was by the research institute of the People’s Liberation Army.

BoM has declined to provide comment on security matters, but claimed that its systems are “fully operational” and that it will continue to “provide reliable, on-going access to high quality weather, climate, water and oceans information to its stakeholders”.