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CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia's weather bureau refused to comment on a media report on Wednesday that it has been hacked in a cyberattack that compromised sensitive systems across the federal government.
Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported on Wednesday that China had been blamed for the recent attack that breached the defenses of the Bureau of Meteorology's computers and would costs millions of dollars to fix.
The bureau said in a statement it did not comment on security matters.
"Like all government agencies, we work closely with the Australian government security agencies," the statement said.
"The bureau's systems are fully operational and the bureau continues to provide reliable, on-going access to high quality weather, climate, water and oceans information to its stakeholders," it said.
The bureau is linked through its computers to other government agencies, including the Defense Department.
The ABC report, citing unnamed officials, said the motivation for the attack could be commercial, strategic or both.
The ABC did not know which government branches had been compromised or what information, if any, had been stolen.
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