'Chinese hackers' hit Western Australia's parliament email network system

It is a part of the massive global cyber-attack involving Microsoft software.

The ABC has confirmed the online strike, which was detected on March 4 in the middle of the state election campaign, prompting intervention from Australia's cyber security watchdog in Canberra.

"Please be advised that the Parliament mail server has been hit with a cyber-attack," WA politicians were warned at the time.

"Consequently, the mail server will be down until further notice," a text message sent by the Department of Parliamentary Services advised as quoted by ABC.

An investigation by Western Australia's Parliamentary Services Department has since concluded no sensitive data was stolen in the attack, reports ABC.

"As soon as we became aware of the attack, we immediately disconnected the email server," WA's Executive Manager of Parliamentary Services Rob Hunter told the ABC.

IT giant Microsoft recently claimed a group of hackers linked to China hacked into its popular email service that allowed them to gain access to computers.

"Today, we’re sharing information about a state-sponsored threat actor identified by the Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center (MSTIC) that we are calling Hafnium. Hafnium operates from China, and this is the first time we’re discussing its activity. It is a highly skilled and sophisticated actor," Microsoft said in a blog post.

Historically, Hafnium primarily targets entities in the United States for the purpose of exfiltrating information from a number of industry sectors, including infectious disease researchers, law firms, higher education institutions, defense contractors, policy think tanks and NGOs, the IT company claimed.

"While Hafnium is based in China, it conducts its operations primarily from leased virtual private servers (VPS) in the United States," the company said.

"Recently, Hafnium has engaged in a number of attacks using previously unknown exploits targeting on-premises Exchange Server software. To date, Hafnium is the primary actor we’ve seen use these exploits, which are discussed in detail by MSTIC here," it said.