Australian Security Intelligence Organisation's (ASIO) director general of security Mike Burgess has painted a grim picture of multiple credible - and yet unknown - threats to Australia's national security at the spy organisation's sixth Annual Threat Assessment this week.
In his annual threat assessment to the public, Burgess called for a “collective response” in a multi-faceted threat landscape where social media, misinformation, conspiracy theories and radicalisation of our youths are today's concerns for Australia's national security.
“Our 2030 Outlook notes we will see a generation of digital natives – people who have spent all their formative years online – enter a vulnerable age for radicalisation,” Burgess said.
"For some, their sense of normality, identity and community will be more influenced by the online world than the real world.
“If technology continues its current trajectory, it will be easier to find extremist material, and AI-fuelled algorithms will make it easier for extremist material to find vulnerable adolescent minds that are searching for meaning and connection.
“Australia has never faced so many different threats at scale, at once.
In this environment, national security is truly national security – everybody’s business.
“Intelligence agencies such as ASIO will need to expand their partnerships beyond the traditional – but still critical – law enforcement and security relationships to include education, health, social services and big tech.”
Seven sins
The remit for future action is written in the ASIO Act, and includes seven "heads" of security:
- Espionage
- Foreign interference
- Politically motivated violence (of which terrorism is a subcategory)
- Promotion of communal violence
- Sabotage
- Attacks on Australia’s defence system
- Serious threats to border integrity
Burgess said the first three are “already flashing red”, and the others are trending upwards - with the exception of threats to Australia’s borders.
In relation to espionage, one of the primary threats includes information about our military capabilities and alliances, such as AUKUS - a trilateral defence agreement between Australia, the UK and the U.S.
The big ticket so far is the nuclear-powered submarine pathway, which is forecast to cost up to $368 billion between now and the mid-2050s.
That’s ruffled the feathers of some nation states such as North Korea, which said the AUKUS pact poses “a threat to regional peace”.
Speaking about the shift in foreign interference tactics, Burgess says foreign entities are moving away from traditional spies to proxies.
Proxies, he explains, could be unwittingly involved in foreign espionage efforts - such as private investigators. Or they could know exactly what they’re doing.
And in terms of politically motivated violence, ASIO identified multiple nations plotting to "physically harm people" in Australia, and that the threat of anti-semitic attacks had not yet abated.
“In a small number of cases, we held grave fears [about] the life of the person being targeted. In one operation, a foreign intelligence service wanted to silence an Australia-based human rights activist,” Burgess said.
