One of Australia's senior military figures says the threat of cyber attacks against the nation's infrastructure and military networks is on the rise.

Key points: Major General Marcus Thompson has warned the threat of cyber attacks on the military is on the rise

Major General Marcus Thompson has warned the threat of cyber attacks on the military is on the rise The senior Defence official has concerns about Australia's ability to handle a major attack

The senior Defence official has concerns about Australia's ability to handle a major attack Foreign hackers have gained access to the major political parties in a cyber attack

Major General Marcus Thompson leads the Information Warfare Division, which was set up in mid-2017 with the aim of providing both defensive and offensive cyber capabilities.

In his first media major interview, he told the ABC the job of protecting Australia from serious cyber threats was only becoming more challenging.

"What I'm seeing is a significant up-tick in the threats both from a criminal perspective as well as from state-sponsored [groups]," he said.

The primary responsibility of the Information Warfare Division is to defend the military's own systems, but Major General Thompson said he held concerns about the threat to civilian infrastructure.

That includes Australia's ability to respond if a major cyber attack were to be launched on critical systems such as banks, telecommunication or utility companies.

Major General Thompson said the job of protecting Australia is becoming harder. ( News Video )

He said it was the broader Australian Government's capacity to respond to a big fight in cyber space that kept him up at night.

"I have a concern, and I know this concern is shared by many of my colleagues and mates throughout the national security community, that in the event of a significant incident on Australia in cyber space, the resources that would be required to respond might not exist at the scale that might be required," Major General Thompson said.

The Australian Defence Force's ability to step in and protect such systems is limited, as the military is not allowed to conduct operations in Australia.

Major General Thompson said Australia was planning to step up its own offensive capability, particularly in foreign conflict zones.

But he has questioned whether the Defence Force could have a role to play if a major attack was launched against key infrastructure.

"Defence is not legislated to operate in a domestic setting [but] there are call-out provisions in the Defence Act," he said.

"All of that would be options for the Government to consider in the event of an incident."

"If a threat is coming at scale it would be a shame to have highly trained, incredibly professional soldiers, sailors, airwomen sitting on the bench while their civilian mates are trying to fight it off."

The threat is not hypothetical — Australia's intelligence agencies are currently responding to two recent attacks aimed at the nation's political system.

The Australian Signals Directorate and the Australian Cyber Security Centre were called in after hackers targeted the Parliament House computer network and also tried to crack into the systems of the major political parties.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Watch Duration: 2 minutes 2 seconds 2 m 2 s PM and Shorten respond to hack on major parties

As to where the weaknesses in the systems are, the Major General declined to point out any specifics.

"I speak with the banks and telcos routinely, [they are] very well defended," he said.

"But I think there are other industry, other government departments that are incredibly important for the continued functioning of government and society that perhaps aren't as well defended."

The threat to defence itself

Major General Thompson said the number one priority of the Information Warfare Division was to defend the military system from attacks, which included the computer systems on planes and ships that could be hacked by the enemy.

"Our focus is on the development of defensive cyber capabilities … for one good reason: the defence of our networks and mission systems is not only the most pressing priority, it's also the harder challenge," he said.

Major General Thompson said the weapons used by the Australian Defence Force were changing with an ever-greater reliance on technology into the future, which added an extra level of security concerns.

"When we consider it won't be too long before there is very little in the Australian Defence Force infantry drive in terms of hydraulics," he said.

"Everything will be fly by wire, sail by wire, drive by wire.

"The first thing that happens when that ship comes alongside or the aircraft is towed into a hangar is that someone is going to plug in an electronic device.

"So procedures around the hygiene of that device, both passive and active defence of those platforms and missions systems as well as our computer networks, that's where we are focusing our attention right now."

The Information Warfare division also oversees cyber attacks that Australia launches on foreign forces in war zones, and Major General Thompson said he expected the number of "offensive attacks" to increase.

"Whether that's stopping a drone from dropping a grenade, or [stopping] flying explosives into one of our locations, we need to be able to defend against that type of threat and we do."

He said there were two main reasons the nature of warfare was changing from soldiers with guns to soldiers armed with keyboards.

"The cost of entry into this area is incredibly low relative to other military capabilities, [and] there is a greater opportunity for the various uses of cyber space as a society becomes more dependent on information and our electronic devices."