Top-level sources with detailed knowledge of the cyber attack on Australia's political parties and Parliament have dismissed a report that Iran and not China was behind the hack.

Citing the US cyber research company Resecurity, The Wall Street Journal reported the attack was likely carried out by Iran's Mabna Institute Hackers.

Parliament House in Canberra. Credit:Graham Tidy

Resecurity president Charles Yoo said the pattern of the attack fitted with those previously carried out by the Mabna hackers, and he believed that the blame most in Australia had laid on the Chinese was a false flag.

He provided a database of 7,354 records containing phone contacts and emails for Australian MPs and parliamentary staffers.