Aust'n gov't urges political parties to secure themselves from cyber attacks

The Australian government on Tuesday urged national and state political parties to ensure they are adequately protected from cyber attacks.

Following claims that U.S. presidential election campaigns were manipulated by hackers, Australia's Assistant Minister for Cyber Security Dan Tehan has warned federal and state political parties to keep up to date with cyber security protocols in order to protect themselves from attacks.

"We're heading into a new election cycle, we've got two state elections coming up this year," Tehan told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Tuesday.

"We have to make sure our political processes, our democratic processes, are protected from this type of intrusion."

Next month, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will host a summit aimed at teaching political entities about the risks of cyber attacks, with the Australian Cyber Security Centre to brief leaders on how to best limit the risk.

"Australian democracy is something that we have to preserve, it's something that we have to cherish, it's something that we have to protect," Tehan said.

Last year, the government was the subject of at least two cyber attacks. The Bureau of Meteorology's website was breached and malicious software was installed, while the nation's first online census was also hit by a number of Denial of Service attacks, prompting the shut-down of the service for almost 48 hours. Endit