Political parties to be briefed on cyber threats: Turnbull

The Prime Minister was given a tour of the Australian Defence Signals Directorate in Canberra - home to our most senior intelligence officials.

There, Malcolm Turnbull received a high-level briefing on the threat posed to Australia by cyber-hacking, in the light of Russia's unprecedented intervention in United States politics.

Mr Turnbull says it is acknowledged that there was Russian interference both in terms of hacking and in terms of seeking to influence the election through.

"Threats like this are of great concern to our nation, to our government and to me as Prime Minister. We have to ensure we maintain the integrity of our poitical process. There will be a full briefing by our cyber experts of other politcal parties and other political leaders when parliament comes back. We need to be aware of the threats and we need to mitigate against them."

Professor Nigel Phair, Director of the Centre for Internet Safety at the University of Canberra, has applauded the Prime Minister for raising the alert.

Professor Phair says it's not just the physical hacking of computers organisations and individuals should be wary of.

"What we have seen, particularly via the US election is the proverbial fake news story for example and we are seeing lost of under current through social media and other platforms and websites that messages are being distilled, messages are being changed, they can be spun in whatever way. We are seeing not so much a technical hacking into the platforms, into the infrastructure of organisations, as important as that is, but more thre use of social media and other associated platforms. "

The minister assisting the Prime Minister on Cyber Security, Dan Tehan, says it's an issue that goes beyond politics.

While there's no evidence Australian politicians have been hacked so far, he believes it would be naive to think there is no future risk.

"Because this goes beyond political games. This goes to the heart and soul of what we are and who we are as a nation. We have state elections coming up this year and we have to make sure that they are protected, that when Australians go to vote they can have confidence that there is no compromise of our electoral system and our democratic process."

Alarm bells have rung among political leaders across the globe after a a US intelligence report found that Russia hacked into Democractic National Committee computers during the U-S presidential election.

It was believed two spies then leaked 19,000 emails, after accessing encrypted information.

Defence Industry Minister Christopher Pyne is particuarly wary of the threat online hacking could pose to national security.

"What exercises my mind as the Defence Industry Minister is impressing upon businesses that they are potential targets for cyber espionage as other countries attempt to get into our defence system through our sub-contractors in defence. So one our critical requirements for Australian businesses if they want to be a defence supplier is they have to have as good cyber-security as the defence department itself."

According to Nigel Phair, it's becoming increasingly difficult to track down the source of the cyber-espionage.

"It could be a single hacker on behalf of a state, it could be the whole apparatus of an entire state just going at it really hard. Everyone has got their own motivations online, whether you are a serious organised criminal, or a nation state. While we are sitting here today there are people thinking of the next way to exploit a system, exploit a person or even exploit a government."