France's defence minister has renewed suggestions that revelations of a major data breach in its submarine program were the work of malicious foreign or commercial rivals.
During a visit to Sydney on Monday, Jean-Yves Le Drian said the leak was clearly aimed at damaging the reputation of his country's submarine program.
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CEO quizzed over data breach
The head of DCNS - the company building Australia's new submarines - and Christopher Pyne didn't appear amused when quizzed about a recent security breach at a media event.
"There's obviously an intent to actually harm France," Mr Le Drian said during a joint press conference with Defence Minister Marise Payne.
The remarks follow on from previous comments by the French firm DCNS that the leak was an act of "economic warfare", though company CEO Herve Guillou declined to repeat those accusations at a recent press conference in France with Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne.
DCNS has been chosen to help with Australia's $50 billion future submarine program.
The documents relating to the submarine that French firm DCNS designed for the Indian navy were believed to have been taken from the firm in 2011 by a French contractor.
They then came into possession of an Australian contractor, Rex Patrick, who took over the Frenchman's work and then went on to become an adviser to South Australian Senator Nick Xenophon.
Mr Patrick revealed the data breach to The Australian newspaper in August but maintains he did it only to put pressure on the French firm and the Australian government to make sure such breaches didn't happen again with the Australian program. He has denied there were any commercial motivations.
As Fairfax Media reported recently, Senator Xenophon knew and approved of Mr Patrick's actions. Senator Payne has said the government is considering whether to revoke Mr Patrick's security clearance, which he holds as a former navy reservist and a contractor to the Defence Department.
The circumstances of the leak are now the subject of a French investigation, with which Senator Payne said "Australia is co-operating".
Mr Le Drian said the leak did not include the most highly classified material on the Indian submarine but "nevertheless we look at this with all of the seriousness that it requires".