Australian Official’s Cellphone Tapped during Fight over Access to MH17 Zone

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop Ed Jones/AP

Unidentified nation hacked Foreign Affairs Minister Bishop’s device while she was overseas.

An unidentified nation compromised Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop’s mobile device while she was overseas negotiating to get her country’s police into the MH17 crash area, the Herald Sun reports.

It is believed that Australian intelligence agents know from where the hack originated.

Bishop was on a two-week trip to the United States, Ukraine and Holland.

“MH17’s downing caused the most serious rift with Russia in decades and led to calls for President Vladimir Putin to be banned from November’s G20 meeting in Brisbane,” the Herald Sun reports. “Last weekend [Bishop] said Russia’s claims that it was moving people and equipment into Ukraine for humanitarian purposes would be viewed as a ‘transparent artifice.’”

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