The email accounts of Australian prime minister Julia Gillard and other senior politicians may have been hacked, according to reports in Australia.
Chinese intelligence agencies may be among those responsible for accessing the e-mails, the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported, without saying where it got the information.
An investigation was started into the possible hacking of the parliamentary computers of at least 10 ministers, including Ms Gillard, foreign minister and former prime minister Kevin Rudd and defence minister Stephen Smith, the newspaper said, citing unidentified senior government officials.
Thousands of e-mails have reportedly been accessed.
"We won't comment on security matters," Ms Gillard told reporters in Perth today when asked about the e-mails during a media conference.
Attorney General Robert McClelland declined to directly comment on the possibility that e-mails had been accessed. "The Australian Government takes the issue of cyber security very seriously and is constantly strengthening cyber security measures," he said in an e-mailed statement.
Calls to the news department at the foreign ministry in Beijing were not answered.
Earlier this month, Mr McClelland highlighted the threat to security posed by hackers.
"The emergence of China will continue to be a dominant factor in Australia's foreign policy in the 21st century, whether you look at the impact of its resource requirements on our economy, implications of its relationship with the United States, or its increasing engagement in our immediate region," Mr McClelland said on March 10th in a Canberra speech.
"While traditional threats like espionage and foreign interference remain significant, the explosion of the cyber world has expanded infinitely the opportunities for the covert acquisition of information by both state and non-state actors."
Bloomberg