Latest news with #MikeBurgess
The Guardian
26-02-2025
- The Guardian
Asio boss questioned in Senate estimates on News Corp's alleged failed 'sting' operation
At Senate estimates, the Asio director general, Mike Burgess, faces questions about an alleged attempt by News Corp staff to provoke workers at a Middle Eastern restaurant in Sydney. Burgess labels the incident 'mind-blowingly stupid' and says it was 'entirely unhelpful' for the 'poor person on the receiving end of that'
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Spy chief warns Australia facing greater security challenges
The head of Australia's domestic intelligence agency ASIO has warned that the country will face greater threats from espionage, foreign interference and potentially sabotage over the next five years. In his annual threat assessment, ASIO director-general Mike Burgess warned that multiple countries were "relentlessly seeking information" about Australia's military capabilities. "Defence personnel are being targeted in person and online. Some were recently given gifts by international counterparts. The presents contained concealed surveillance devices." The AUKUS alliance of Australia, the US and Britain, would remain a "priority target for intelligence collection, including by countries we consider friendly," Burgess said. He warned a "small number of authoritarian regimes" were behaving more aggressively, recklessly and dangerously. "If the spy game has a rule book, it is being rewritten. If there are red lines, they are being blurred – or deliberately rubbed out." At least three different countries had plotted to harm people living in Australia, Burgess said. In one case, a foreign intelligence service wanted to trick a human rights activist to visit a third country. "They planned to arrange an 'accident' that was anything but accidental, with the objective of seriously injuring or even killing the activist," Burgess said. "Fortunately, ASIO intervened to stop the travel and foil the plot before it occurred." In 2023, intelligence indicated a different hostile foreign intelligence service wanted to harm and possibly kill one or more individuals on Australian soil, he said. "It goes without saying that plots like these are repugnant. They not only involve plans to hurt people – obviously bad enough – they are shocking assaults on Australian sovereignty and the freedoms we hold dear."
Euronews
19-02-2025
- Politics
- Euronews
Australia's spy agency foils three plots to harm individuals on its soil
Australia's spy agency has uncovered three separate foreign plots to physically harm individuals living in the country, Director-General of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) Mike Burgess revealed on Wednesday. In his annual address outlining national security threats, Burgess did not disclose the countries involved. However, he did state that an unnamed regime had planned to harm or assassinate one or more individuals in Australia as part of a broader global effort to silence its critics. Burgess also detailed how ASIO intervened in another case to prevent a human rights advocate from travelling to a third country, where they would have been harmed or killed. ASIO, in collaboration with international security partners, disrupted the scheme at an early stage. Burgess did not elaborate on the nature of the third foreign plot. 'In a small number of cases, we held grave fears for the life of the person being targeted,' Burgess stated during his speech at ASIO headquarters in Canberra. Cyber attacks also a threat Additionally, ASIO identified a cyber unit linked to a foreign government attempting to infiltrate critical infrastructure networks in the US. The same group had made similar incursions in Australia, seeking to map and compromise systems for potential future cyberattacks. 'ASIO worked closely with our American counterpart to evict the hackers and shut down their global accesses, including nodes here in Australia,' Burgess said. Burgess warned that foreign intelligence services are increasingly targeting Australia's AUKUS security partnership with the United States and the United Kingdom, particularly efforts to develop a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines. 'ASIO has identified foreign services seeking to target AUKUS to position themselves to collect on the capabilities, how Australia intends to use them, and to undermine the confidence of our allies,' he said.
The Independent
19-02-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Australian spy boss says 3 foreign governments plotted to harm people in Australia
An Australian spy agency had discovered three foreign governments plotting to physically harm people living in Australia, a security boss said on Wednesday. Mike Burgess, Director General of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, the nation's main domestic spy agency known as ASIO, did not name the countries in his latest annual address outlining threats to the country. One government attempted to trick a human rights advocate into traveling from Australia to a third country where plotters planned to injure or kill their target. ASIO intervened to prevent the travel. 'In a small number of cases, we held grave fears for the life of the person being targeted,' Burgess said in a speech at ASIO headquarters in the national capital Canberra. Another government planned to harm or kill one or more people in Australia as part of a broader plot to eliminate critics around the world. Working with international security agencies, ASIO disrupted the operation at an early stage. In both cases, the plotters were offshore and beyond the reach of Australian law. Burgess didn't detail the third country's plot. Collaboration between ASIO and the US In a wide-ranging speech, Burgess revealed ASIO had alerted U.S. authorities to a 12-year-old boy plotting mass shootings in the United States. ASIO online operators found a self-professed neo-Nazi on a popular social networking site. The boy talked about live streaming a school shooting and then moving on to a church, synagogue or mosque. The Australian spy agency also discovered a cyber unit from an unnamed foreign government that targeted critical infrastructure networks in the U.S. The same unit routinely tried to explore and exploit Australia's networks, mapping systems to lay down malware or maintain access in the future. 'ASIO worked closely with our American counterpart to evict the hackers and shut down their global accesses, including nodes here in Australia,' Burgess said. Spies target Australia's AUKUS partnership with the US and UK Foreign spy agencies targeted Australia's AUKUS partnership with the U.S. and Britain that will deliver an Australian fleet of submarines powered by U.S. nuclear technology. AUKUS is an acronym for Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In addition to the submarine deal, AUKUS Pillar II involves cooperation on a wider range of security technologies including artificial intelligence, electronic warfare and hypersonic systems. 'ASIO has identified foreign services seeking to target AUKUS to position themselves to collect on the capabilities, how Australia intends to use them, and to undermine the confidence of our allies," Burgess said. 'AUKUS will remain a priority target for intelligence collection, including by countries we consider friendly,' he said, without naming those countries.
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Foreign spies seeking AUKUS secrets, Australia intelligence chief says
By Kirsty Needham Canberra (Reuters) - Australia's military is being targeted by foreign intelligence over its AUKUS nuclear submarine partnership with the United States and Britain, and faces growing espionage and sabotage threats, Australia's spy chief said on Wednesday. Warning of a deteriorating national security outlook, director general of security Mike Burgess said the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) had identified foreign services, including those friendly to Australia, targeting AUKUS to determine its capabilities, learn how Australia intends to use the submarines, and undermine the confidence of its allies. See for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories. By signing up, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy. "Multiple countries are relentlessly seeking information about our military capabilities. Defence personnel are being targeted in person and online," he said in an annual threat assessment speech at ASIO headquarters. "Some were recently given gifts by international counterparts. The presents contained concealed surveillance devices," he said, without naming the countries involved. ASIO forecast foreign interference efforts would try to undermine support for AUKUS and engage in potential sabotage if regional tensions escalate. Australia's security environment will degrade over the next five years, he said, borrowing from the popular Hollywood film to summarise the multiple risks as "everything, everywhere, all at once". "ASIO assesses authoritarian regimes are growing more willing to disrupt or destroy critical infrastructure to impede decision-making, damage war-fighting capabilities and sow social discord," he said. Cyber sabotage was a particular threat, he said. "Cyber units from at least one nation state routinely try to explore and exploit Australia's critical infrastructure networks, almost certainly mapping systems so they can lay down malware or maintain access in the future," he said. In an apparent reference to Volt Typhoon, a Chinese hacking group named by the U.S. and Australia as infiltrating U.S. critical infrastructure in 2024, Burgess shed new light, saying "ASIO worked closely with our American counterpart to evict the hackers and shut down their global accesses, including nodes here in Australia". Over the next five years foreign intelligence services will exploit artificial intelligence and deeper online pools of data, enabling disinformation and deepfakes - realistic, but fake, portrayals of people - and eroding trust in institutions, he said. The national terrorism threat level was raised in 2024 to probable, with ASIO and police disrupting five plots last year, he said. A growing new problem is extremists self-radicalising faster, with unique "choose your own adventure" belief systems, he said. Most of the terror plots investigated involved mixed nationalist and racist ideologies, and minors, he said. There had been an increase in anti-Semitic violent incidents in Australia and ASIO is concerned the targeting of the Jewish community has not eased. Ahead of a national election, in which border security fears have traditionally been fanned by politicians, he said people-smuggling was unlikely to become a major threat.
