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Illustration. The national flags of Australia and China are displayed before a portrait of Mao Zedong in Beijing in April 2011. An Australian Broadcasting Corporation report says that Chinese hackers have stolen top secret blueprints to Australia's new intelligence agency headquarters/AFP

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China steals new Australia spy agency blueprints

Des Ball, from the Australian National University’s Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, said the blueprints would show which rooms were likely to be used for sensitive conversations, and how to put devices into the walls.

“Once you get those building plans you can start constructing your own wiring diagrams, where the linkages are through telephone connections, through wi-fi connections,” he was quoted as saying.

The report, which did not say when the alleged theft took place, comes amid deepening concern about aggressive state-sponsored hacking by China.

In 2011, the computers of Australia’s prime minister, foreign minister and defence minister were all suspected of being hacked, with the attacks reportedly originating in China.

At the time, Canberra said cyber attacks had become so frequent that government and private networks were under “continuous threat”.

Beijing dismissed the allegations as “groundless and made out of ulterior purposes”.

Earlier this year, computer networks at the Reserve Bank of Australia were hacked, with some said to be infected by Chinese-developed malware searching for sensitive information.

This followed Chinese telecoms giant Huawei being barred in 2012 from bidding for contracts on Australia’s ambitious Aus$36 billion (US$35 billion) broadband rollout due to fears of cyber attacks.

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