Episode

How China could hack our power and telco networks 'today'

Podcast
ABC News Top Stories
Published
Sep 18, 2026
Duration seconds
144
Processing state
not_requested
Canonical source
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/abc-news-top-stories/how-china-could-hack-our-power-and-telco-networks-today/107169686
Audio
https://mediacore-live-production.akamaized.net/audio/02/ok/Z/9n.mp3
JSON
/v1/public/podcasts/abc-news-top-stories-6001594/episodes/how-china-could-hack-our-power-and-telco-networks-today
Markdown
/podcast/abc-news-top-stories-6001594/how-china-could-hack-our-power-and-telco-networks-today.md

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Summary

The nation's spy boss has warned China is actively preparing to switch off power and telecommunications networks in Australia, if a conflict breaks out. The director general of ASIO, Mike Burgess, says Beijing is working to understand how those systems operate and it would probably target specific areas, like defence communications. Cyber security experts say he's right and Australia needs to make sure it's ready for the possibility of hackers trying to shut down our networks.