A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson has described allegations that Beijing was behind a network intrusion of Australia's Federal Parliament as being part of "a larger smear campaign against China".

Hua Chunying told the media in Beijing on Tuesday that China had always held that cyber security should be the concern of all countries as it was a global issue.

The attack on the parliament was reported on Friday. While the main Australian spy agency, the Australian Signals Directorate, took a cautious note on attribution, media outlets like the ABC were quick to blame China for the intrusion.

Hua took a potshot at the US, saying, "I am sure that those who have long been following cyber security issues have not forgotten the PRISM program." The reference was to a program devised by the NSA to conduct surveillance, the details of which were leaked in 2013 by whistle-blower Edward Snowden.

"They must have also heard of the Equation Group and the WannaCry ransomware, the result of a particular country’s attempt to develop offensive cyber tools, that wreaked havoc globally," Hua added. "All those incidents have sounded the alarm for global cyber security."

The Equation Group is suspected to be an NSA offshoot; it was discovered by Kaspersky Lab. An NSA exploit leaked on the Web by a group known as the Shadow Brokers was used to create the WannaCry ransomware which caused chaos globally in May 2017, infecting Windows computers in numerous countries.

Hua added: "Given the virtual nature of cyberspace and the fact that there are all kinds of online actors who are difficult to trace, I must underscore the importance to have enough evidence when investigating and identifying cyber-related incidents. Groundless assumptions and random accusations should not be allowed."

The ASD and the Australian Cyber Security Centre are said to be investigating the cause and perpetrator of the parliament intrusion.