‘This is unacceptable’: Australia slams ‘malicious’ Russian acts

AUSTRALIA has joined in an extraordinary public slapdown of Russia over its “malicious” actions towards other countries.

By

Sam Clench@SamClench

THE Australian Government has slammed Russia for committing “malicious” acts against the rest of the world.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Foreign Minister Marise Payne joined with the United Kingdom today to blame the Russian military intelligence unit, the GRU, for a wave of global cyber attacks.

British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt accused Russia of perpetrating “indiscriminate and reckless” attacks against businesses, political institutions, media and even sport organisations, citing evidence from the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre.

Australia’s own intelligence agencies have reached the same conclusion.

“Based on advice from Australian intelligence agencies, and in consultation with our partners and allies, the Australian Government has determined that the Russian military and their intelligence arm the GRU are responsible for this pattern of malicious cyber activity,” Mr Morrison and Ms Payne said in a joint statement.

They admitted Australia had not been significantly impacted by Russia’s actions — unlike several other nations.

“This activity affected the ability of the public in other parts of the world to go about their daily lives. It caused significant, indiscriminate harm to civilian infrastructure and resulted in millions of dollars in economic damage.

“This is unacceptable and the Australian Government calls on all countries, including Russia, to refrain from these types of malicious activities.”

The GRU has been linked to four separate attacks.

It stole content from email accounts belonging to a British TV station, hacked and then released the confidential medical records of international athletes, hacked the Democratic National Committee in the United States, and infected computers in Ukraine and Russia with BadRabbit ransomware, which disrupted businesses and infrastructure.

“Cyberspace is not the Wild West. The international community — including Russia — has agreed that international law and norms of responsible state behaviour apply in cyberspace. By embarking on a pattern of malicious cyber behaviour, Russia has shown a total disregard for the agreements it helped to negotiate,” the statement from Mr Morrison and Ms Payne said.

“Australia is working with allies and partners to improve co-operative global responses to malicious cyber activity that undermines international security and global economic stability. At home, the Australian Government has invested in world-leading cyber security systems to help deter, detect and manage cyber incidents, together with domestic and international partners.”

Australian Ambassador for Cyber Affairs Dr Tobias Feakin said Russia’s actions were completely out of bounds.

“We’ve very, very sure that it is them who have conducted this array of activity in the international arena. So we feel the evidence base is firm,” he told Sky News.