Australia’s government believes Russian military officials hacked and leaked the emails of senior US Democrats during the 2016 presidential election campaign, before the documents were published online.
It claims the Russian operatives were members of the GRU, a Russian military intelligence agency, and the hack was not their only attack.
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, released an extraordinary statement on Thursday, saying advice from Australian intelligence agencies, in consultation with Australia’s allies, has led him to believe that the Russian military was responsible for a “pattern of malicious cyber activity” stretching back years.
Australia has formally accused the GRU of targeting political, business, media and sporting institutions in numerous coordinated attacks between 2015 and 2018.
In 2016, accounts of staff at the Democratic National Committee and John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, were published by outlets including WikiLeaks during the 2016 presidential campaign.
In July, a dozen Russians were criminally charged over the event. The charges were filed in Washington by Robert Mueller, the special counsel who is investigating Russian interference in the election and possible collusion with members of Donald Trump’s campaign team.
Morrison said Australia believes the GRU was behind other attacks.
He said between July and August 2015, multiple email accounts belonging to a small UK-based TV station were accessed by the Russian military and content was stolen. In August 2016, the Russian military released confidential medical files relating to a number of international athletes, with the World Anti-Doping Agency claiming the data came from a hack of its anti-doping administration and management system.
“While Australia was not significantly impacted, this activity affected the ability of the public in other parts of the world to go about their daily lives,” Morrison said on Thursday, in a joint statement with the foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne.
“It caused significant, indiscriminate harm to civilian infrastructure and resulted in millions of dollars in economic damage, including in Russia. This is unacceptable and the Australian government calls on all countries, including Russia, to refrain from these types of malicious activities.”
The international community – including Russia – has agreed that international law and norms of responsible state behaviour apply in cyberspace, Morrison said.
“Australia’s international cyber engagement strategy recognises that there must be consequences for those who act contrary to the consensus on international law and norms,” he said.
“A first step is to attribute malicious behaviour publicly – as we are doing today. Our message is clear: the rule of law applies online, just as it does offline. We will protect the rules-based international order online, just as we do offline.”
Morrison and Payne said Australia is working with allies and partners to improve cooperative global responses to malicious cyber activity that undermines international security and global economic stability.
During an interview with Fox News in July, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, denied meddling in the US election process.
“Russia as a state has never interfered with the internal affairs of the United States, let alone its elections,” he said in a translated interview.
“Do you really believe that someone acting from the Russian territory could have influenced the United States, and influenced the choice of millions of Americans?”
Nevertheless, he said, the information contained in the hacked DNC emails was genuine, and the information showed some senior Democrats had conspired against Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, in favour of Clinton.
Australia believes the Russian military was behind these attacks:
In October 2017, BadRabbit ransomware infected victims in Ukraine and Russia, interrupting businesses and critical national infrastructure, including energy and transport sectors.
In August 2016, the Russian military released confidential medical files relating to a number of international athletes. The World Anti-Doping Agency has stated publicly that this data came from a hack of its anti-doping administration and management system.
In 2016, the US Democratic National Committee was hacked by the Russian military and documents were subsequently published online.
Between July and August 2015, multiple email accounts belonging to a small UK-based TV station were accessed by the Russian military and content was stolen.
