Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has defended publicising "secret briefings" from intelligence officials on the risk MPs face from Russian-style hacking after the opposition accused him of being "irresponsible in the extreme".
Mr Turnbull and his cyber security minister Dan Tehan held a press conference on Tuesday to announce the government would make the Australian Signals Directorate available to all the major political parties to brief them on the threat of cyber attacks, including by foreign actors.Â
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The offer of the briefings had already been reported that morning in a front page article in The Australian newspaper, which carried quotes from Mr Turnbull and described them as "secret" and "unprecedented".Â
Mr Tehan said he had spoken to his Labor counterpart on Tuesday - after the publication of the article - to explain the offer of the briefing.
"I said this was bipartisan, this was above politics and that is why we are bringing all the political parties together on this," he said.
But in a letter sent to Mr Turnbull on Tuesday, shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus said: "I am very concerned that this issue has been publicised by you directly, including highlighting specific agencies, their functions and target areas considered as vulnerable.
"This is irresponsible in the extreme - Australians have every right to expect their Prime Minister would put national security ahead of their own political purposes.
"There is no reasonable purpose for the government seeking publicity on details of national security matters such as this."
Mr Dreyfus said Labor had already requested a confidential briefing on the security of email servers in Parliament House.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten later told reporters he was "incredibly disappointed" that Mr Turnbull had chosen to brief the newspaper before speaking to the Opposition.
"Malcolm Turnbull must learn to stop playing politics, rushing out trying to get a hurried headline to distract from his lack of a plan on jobs," he said.
Mr Turnbull said it was in the public interest to highlight the risks Australians, including political parties, face from cyber attacks.
This is irresponsible in the extreme - Australians have every right to expect their Prime Minister would put national security ahead of their own political purposes
"Let me say to you, the only way you can proof yourself against cyber vulnerability is to be aware that it is there," he said.Â
"The reality is every Australian government has sought to raise awareness of cyber vulnerabilities ... this has always been a risk and we have always set out to make people aware of the risks because unless they are aware of the risks they won't take the measures to protect themselves."
Mr Turnbull said one "vector" for foreign actors to target Australian politicians would be to collect compromising material on them.
Mr Turnbull said cyber attacks were the "new frontier" of warfare and espionage - as seen in the hacking of the Democratic National Committee during last year's US elections.
"It is always critical that we maintain the integrity of our political process," he said.Â
He said Australians, including politicians, need to practise "good cyber hygiene" including by using two-factor authentication for their passwords and not open attachments from unfamiliar sources.Â
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