China Denies Oz Spy Agency HQ Cyber-Attack

China has denied it was behind a cyber-attack on Australia's new intelligence agency headquarters.

Local media had reported Chinese hackers were responsible for the cyber-theft of top secret blueprints that would make the building and those within it vulnerable to international espionage.

An investigation by the Four Corners current affairs television programme had said the cyber attack on a contractor involved with building the new Canberra HQ of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (Asio) had been traced to a server in China.

However, China - Australia's largest trading partner - has denied responsibility.

China foreign minister Hong Lei said: "Because the (source of the hacking) is untraceable, it is difficult to identify the source of the cyber attack and it is also difficult to identify the hacker.

"So I do not know where the evidence comes from that the relevant reports say is so reliable. Groundless accusations cannot solve the issue."

Australian government ministers have refused to confirm the attack, but say relations with China would not be hurt should the incident have taken place.

Foreign Minister Bob Carr said the government was "very alive" to the threat of cyber attacks on national security, adding "nothing that is being speculated about takes us by surprise."

"I won't comment on whether the Chinese have done what is being alleged or not," he said.

"I won't comment on matters of intelligence and security for the obvious reason - we don't want to share with the world and potential aggressors what we know about what they might be doing and how they might be doing it."

State broadcaster the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, responsible for the Four Corners programme, said the documents taken by hackers included cabling layouts for the huge building's security and communications systems, its floor plan and its server locations.

Mr Carr insisted that the relationship would not be damaged by the allegations, which follow several other hacking attacks on government facilities in the past two years.

"It's got absolutely no implications for a strategic partnership," he said. "We have enormous areas of cooperation with China."

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has refused to comment.

The Four Corners programme cited security experts as saying the cyber theft made the agency vulnerable to remote spying and had probably delayed the opening of the building.

Des Ball, from the Australian National University's Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, said: "Once you get those building plans you can start constructing your own wiring diagrams, where the linkages are through telephone connections, through wi-fi connections."

The report, which did not say when the alleged theft took place, comes amid deepening concern about aggressive state-sponsored hacking by China.

In 2011, the computers of Australia's prime minister, foreign minister and defence minister were all suspected of being hacked, with the attacks reportedly originating in China.

At the time, Canberra said cyber attacks had become so frequent that government and private networks were under "continuous threat".

Beijing dismissed the allegations as "groundless and made out of ulterior purposes".

Earlier this year, computer networks at the Reserve Bank of Australia were hacked, with some said to be infected by Chinese-developed malware searching for sensitive information.

In 2012, Chinese telecoms giant Huawei was barred from bidding for contracts on Australia's ambitious £23bn broadband rollout due to fears of cyber attacks.