Of course it is China. There are a few countries that have the capability: Russia, China, US, UK, and perhaps Iran and NK, although they may not have the scale.

Only China in this list will have the appetite for such a broad approach. 1/

What was the point of ScoMo's press conference? Internal and external signalling.

For domestic audiences: cue the sound of a thousand CISO's knocking to ask for more resources as "the PM just said this is important." 2/

For the Chinese: we are getting tired of this and it's escalated to the highest levels. Final warning or we'll be much more public.

MinDef appearing was interesting and is designed to reinforce seriousness. 3/

ScoMo mentioning critical infrastructure made me wonder which exactly? The definition of CI can be quite broad, so the what and why make a huge difference. Electricity or water to disrupt them? Really really bad. 4/

Compromising telecommunications for intelligence? Bad, but also standard practice for sigint agencies. Framing whatever is happening as attacking critical infrastructure raises the importance. 5/

It's also interesting to think about what triggered this response by ScoMo. The frog has been boiling for years, so what made us jump? 6/