Australia’s spy chief says hackers linked to the Chinese government and military are targeting the country’s critical infrastructure, warning the country was increasingly at risk of “high-impact sabotage”.

Mike Burgess, head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (Asio), said “unprecedented levels of espionage” meant a growing threat of “cyber-enabled sabotage” in the next five years.

He singled out “one nation state - no prizes for guessing which one - conducting multiple attempts to scan and penetrate critical infrastructure in Australia” and its allies, “targeting water, transport, telecommunications, and energy networks”.

The Chinese embassy has been contacted for comment.

Authoritarian regimes were now more willing to “disrupt and destroy,” Burgess warned.

He cited two Chinese hacking groups, Salt Typhoon and Volt Typhoon, who have targeted telecommunications companies in the US and Australia.

“These groups are hackers working for Chinese government intelligence and their military,” he told business leaders at a forum in Melbourne on Wednesday.

“Both groups were involved in the theft of sensitive information, but the real danger was the threat of sabotage - disruption to critical infrastructure.”

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