Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Chinese 'Spying' Rattles Australia

Chinese 'Spying' Rattles Australia
(NSI News Source Info) April 8, 2009: Hackers reportedly sought access to Prime minister Rudd's emails last year, raising concerns about corporate takeovers. Australia has tightened its security control on communication with Beijing after Chinese spies reportedly hacked the phone and computer of Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd during his trip to China, and targeted Rio Tinto in the early stage of Chinalco’s bid. The invisible attacks from Chinese hackers will further intensify Sino-Australian tensions, sparked by Canberra’s moves to delay and oppose mutibillion-dollar Chinese investment proposals in Australia’s resources sector. Chinese authorities had tried to access the laptop computers and mobile phones used by Kevin Rudd and other government officials during the Prime Minister’s trip to China in August last year, newspaper The Australian reported Friday, citing unnamed intelligence sources. Beijing's electronic espionage as well as other repeated attempts to break into the internet networks of the Australian government, private businesses, and foreign embassies based in Canberra, led to a further tightening of communications security procedures for senior government figures travelling to China, the newspaper added. Officials at the Chinese embassy in Canberra could not be immediately reached for comment, with phone calls unanswered. The growing suspicion of Chinese espionage has triggered tightened scrutiny of recent Chinese investments in various Australian miners. Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board last month extended the investigation into Chinalco’s plan to purchase iron ore, copper, bauxite, alumina and aluminum assets from Rio Tinto for $12.3 billion, in addition to buying $7.3 billion worth of convertible notes that could double its equity stake in Rio Tinto to 18.0%. Shortly after putting the Chinalco-Rio Tinto deal on hold, Australia’s Treasury last Friday rejected an $1.8 billion bid by Chinese state-owned Minmetals' for OZ Minerals because the company's prized Prominent Hill mine was near a military weapons-testing range in the deserts of outback Australia.

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