Скачать или смотреть Frequency of cyber attacks are increasing

A parliamentary committee has advised urgent reforms are needed to protect Australia's critical infrastructure from cyber threats.

Sky News Australia discussed the issue with Chair of Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, Senator James Paterson, who said independent experts believe Australia is under cyber-threat from foreign state actors.

"They believe it's possible that there are foreign state actors who are prepositioned on our critical infrastructure networks such as electricity, water, gas, financial system – and that positioning could be activated as a prelude to a regional crisis," Mr Paterson said.

"As a means of weakening Australia and preventing us from projecting our power and protecting our interests and our values in the region.

Mr Paterson said Australia's critical infrastructure providers are also vulnerable to threat from non-state actors such as criminal gangs seeking to make profit from ransomware.

"There's an attack roughly every 32 minutes on a critical infrastructure provider in the cyber space and so much more needs to be done by both government and industry to safeguard those critical suppliers ... systemically important to our country."