Foreign government hackers have raided official New Zealand websites, stealing information and installing spying software, the country's secret service chief told a newspaper in a report published on Tuesday.

Warren Tucker, director of the Security Intelligence Service (SIS), would not name any country responsible but referred to comments by Canadian security officials about Chinese spying activities, the Dominion Post reported.

Tucker told the paper there was evidence that foreign governments were responsible for the attacks and in some cases, departments did not even realise their computer systems had been breached.

He said information he described as sensitive had been stolen and attempts were made to access classified information.

Tucker said that one department's system had been penetrated and a programme inserted to generate bogus but genuine looking e-mails. He would not identify the department.

He said the SIS was stepping up foreign intelligence gathering and had increased security awareness in government departments.

The paper said Russia and China had been implicated in attacks on the British parliament's computer system and China was accused last week of hacking into German government systems and the Pentagon in the United States.

Source: Earth Times