Australia is under an “unprecedented” threat of foreign espionage and interference, one of the country’s most senior spy chiefs said in a rare speech, citing the case of a “sleeper agent” who spent years building business links.
Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) Director-General Mike Burgess said that several nations are working hard to influence lawmakers, government officials, media figures, business leaders and academics.
“The level of threat we face from foreign espionage and interference activities is currently unprecedented,” Burgess said at ASIO headquarters in Canberra on Monday evening, as he unveiled the agency’s annual threat assessment.
Burgess did not identify the countries infiltrating Australia, although analysts said that it was a thinly veiled reference to China.
“It’s very reasonable to assume that China was the country in question,” said Rory Medcalf, head of Australian National University’s National Security College.
The ASIO is Australia’s domestic intelligence agency.
In September last year, Reuters reported that Australia’s intelligence agencies concluded that China had launched a cyberattack on the Australian parliament and the country’s three largest political parties just months before a general election in May.
China, which is Australia’s largest trading partner, has denied responsibility for the attack.
Australia decided not to reveal the identity of the attackers to protect its trading relationship with China, sources familiar with the decision told Reuters in September.
“I don’t care what country it is we’re talking about, whether it’s China or Russia or Iran — if people pose a threat to our country, they will be dealt with according to the level of that threat,” Australian Minister of Home Affairs Peter Dutton told reporters in Canberra yesterday when asked about China.
Australia is being targeted in part because of its strategic position and alliances, and its leadership in science and technology, Burgess said.
The sleeper agent from an unnamed country lay dormant for several years, building business and community links before he started to supply information about expatriate dissidents, he said.
That information was used to harass the dissidents in Australia and their relatives overseas, he added.
Visiting academics and scientists had been infiltrating universities to collect intelligence, while foreign spies had entered Australia with the intention of setting up sophisticated hacking infrastructure, he said.
“The intent is to engineer fundamental shifts in Australia’s position in the world, not just to collect intelligence or use us as a potential ‘back door’ into our allies and partners,” Burgess said.
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