Personal details of more than 35,000 Australians included in leaked Chinese database

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A Chinese military company has amassed the personal details of more than 35,000 Australians as part of a giant global database targeting influential figures. The company with links to Beijing's military and intelligence networks has collated profiles on 2.4 million people. The profiles contain a range of information including birth dates, addresses, marital statuses and political leanings. Bank records, job applications and psychological profiles have also been collected. Australian politicians, business people and entrepreneurs are on the database

Much of the data has been drawn from public records but some information appears to have been sourced from confidential documents, raising questions about China's intelligence-gathering operations. The data was shared with an international consortium of media outlets in the United States, United Kingdom, Italy, Germany as well as the Australian Financial Review and ABC in Australia. Individuals on the database include Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes, and other business leaders like Jennifer Westacott, Nine Entertainment's Hugh Marks and David Gonski.

According to the ABC, the data has been collated from social media accounts such as Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram and TikTok, news stories and other publicly available records. This includes individuals with criminal records or sanctioned by corporate regulators, the Australian Financial Review also reported. The leaked database was compiled by Shenzhen firm Zhenhua Data, which is understood to list the People's Liberation Army and Communist Party as key clients, according to AFR. Cabinet minister Angus Taylor said the government had been boosting spending on cybersecurity to guard against online threats.

He said, if true, it's concerning. But that is exactly why we have made a major additional investment to the cybersecurity of this nation, ensuring that we are secure against cyber intrusion.

Federal opposition frontbencher Kristina Keneally said the database was concerning and people were right to feel alarmed. Of course, countries have long collected intelligence but it's important each country's independence is respected. What this highlights is that the threat of foreign interference and the capacity to amass big data sets on a population is real and we've got to take that threat very seriously.