China's foreign ministry has rejected suggestions a large-scale hacking attack on Australian government departments, service providers and companies is coming from China, and has blamed an Australian think-tank for making "baseless" claims.
While some Australian government officials have told the ABC they believe China is responsible, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has only said that a "sophisticated state-based actor" is to blame for the attacks.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said he believed the claims of hacking originated from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), which he said was funded by US arms companies and was making fictitious claims about China.
"We've pointed out many times, this institute has long been receiving funding from US arms companies, and the attacks coming from the institute are completely baseless", said Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Zhao Lijian.
"It has been hyping up, or creating, all kinds of anti-China topics.
"The attacks and the blame coming from this institute against China is totally baseless and nonsense."
Mr Zhao also said China was a "staunch upholder of cyber security" and "the biggest victim of cyber attacks".
In response, ASPI executive director Peter Jennings said the ministry's comments were an attempt to distract attention from the think tank's research into the Chinese Government, adding that he believed China was "highly likely" to be the source of the cyber attacks on Australia.
"Our China research is based on extensive use of sources in Mandarin," Mr Jennings said.
"At no stage has the Chinese MFA ever seriously addressed the content of our research."
When pushed on whether his reference to ASPI was correctly understood to be the response to Mr Morrison's claims of widespread cyber hacking, Mr Zhao replied: "I've answered this clearly."
On Friday, Mr Morrison announced Australian institutions, including hospitals and state-owned utilities, had been the targets of a large-scale cyber attacks in recent months.
"What I can confirm is there are not a large number of state-based actors that can engage in this type of activity," Mr Morrison said.
"The actions that we are taking are the actions that we need to take, and we will continue to be as vigilant as we possibly can be."
Defence Minister Linda Reynolds urged companies to review new cyber protection advice from the Australian Cyber Security Centre.
"Can I remind all Australians that cyber security is a shared responsibility of us all," she said.
The ASPI website lists a number of defence companies among its sponsors, including Northrop Grumman, MBDA Missile Systems and Raytheon Australia.
Mr Jennings said the think tank also received funding from US State Department, the Netherlands Government and the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office for "specific projects".
He said the think tank's funding can be found in annual reports tabled in parliament and available online at the ASPI website.
