Key Points
- Burgess warned more infrastructure attacks like the one that took out Optus will likely hit Australians.
- He said some public servants bragging about their security clearance have made themselves easy targets.
- ASIO is tracking an "A-team" of foreign spies from one country targeting Australians, he said.
Foreign interference and espionage pose an absolutely certain risk in Australia and are more of a threat than terrorism, the nation’s top spy has warned.
ASIO director-general Mike Burgess has also revealed the agency is tracking an "A-team" of foreign spies from one country targeting Australians that is "aggressive and experienced."
Delivering his annual threat assessment on Wednesday, Burgess detailed an operation the A-team conducted several years ago, successfully recruiting a former politician.
"This politician sold out their country, party and former colleagues to advance the interests of the foreign regime. At one point, the former politician even proposed bringing a Prime Minister’s family member into the spies' orbit."
That plot did not go ahead "but other schemes did," Burgess said.
Burgess warned more infrastructure attacks like the one will likely hit Australians, while nationalists and racists in Australia pose an increasing risk.
How do the spies work
Burgess said the spy team is recruiting consultants to hand over information for high pay and posing as consultants, head-hunters, local government officials, academics and think tank researchers.
They're also targeting students, academics, politicians, business people, researchers, law enforcement officials and public servants at all levels of government.
"We decided to confront the A-team and then speak about it publicly as part of a real-world, real-time disruption. We want the A-team to know its cover is blown," he said.
He said public servants have been bragging about their security clearance and some have made themselves easy targets.
Home extremists
"The threat from nationalist and racist violent extremism persists. We assess white nationalist groups are primarily focussed on recruitment and radicalisation—their recent attempts to gain public attention are a good example."
Around Australia, groups of black-clad men , with six getting arrested.
The last 18 months have brought an uptick in the number of nationalist and racist violent extremists advocating sabotage in private conversations, Burgess said.
"It's particularly pronounced among 'accelerationists' – extremists who want to trigger a so-called 'race war'.
"We have seen them endorsing attacks on power networks, electrical substations and railway networks," Burgess said.
ASIO is concerned about lone actors moving their talk to action without warning.
Burgess said ASIO is aware of one nation-state conducting multiple attempts to scan critical infrastructure in Australia and other countries, targeting water, transport and energy networks.
Hamas-Israel war
Burgess referenced the Hamas-Israel war and said ASIO has seen heightened tensions that have turned into violent protest activity.
"Hateful rhetoric" has targeted Israel and the Jewish community, as well as Muslim and Palestinian communities, he said.
"The conflict has expanded with attacks carried out by a range of terrorists, particularly those aligned with Iran.
"We have seen attempts by ISIL and al-Qaeda to use the conflict to motivate attacks globally and affiliates of both groups are active in Afghanistan, Africa, South-East Asia and Europe."
Australians haven’t travelled to join those attacks, Burgess said.
