Australian PM's computer hacked, reports say

Hackers broke into the parliamentary email accounts of the Australian prime minister Julia Gillard, foreign minister Kevin Rudd and defence minister Stephen Smith, and retained access for up to a month, according to reports.

News Ltd papers reported that China-based state-sponsored attackers are supsected of responsibility for the attacks. The Australian government has not denied the incident, nor said if its fledgling cyber counter-espionage unit within the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) has been asked to take the lead on an investigation.

The department said only that it is "the long-standing practice of successive Australian governments not to comment on the operations of security and intelligence agencies".

For more on this ZDNet UK-selected story, see Gillard hack a test run for new ASIO unit? on ZDNet Australia.