"While I support the exercise my concern is that they are not bringing in outsiders to criticize them; most of the hackers are outside the establishment anyway," he said.

A spokesperson for the Attorney General's office described Australia's involvement in Cyber Storm as a table-top exercise.

"The critical infrastructure protection branch is coordinating a table-top exercise in order to test responses to a major cyber incident," a spokesperson said.

"The scenario is expected to involve hackers disrupting transport and communications systems."