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A ‘Present, Precious danger’: ASIO Director Details ‘Relentless’ Acts of International Spionage
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A ‘Present, Precious danger’: ASIO Director Details ‘Relentless’ Acts of International Spionage

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Key Points
  • ASIO director-general Mike Burgess has warned about the “real, current and precious danger” of foreign espionage.
  • The best spy function in Australia outlined the impact of espionage on the Australian economy in a speech on Thursday evening.
  • Burgess also confirmed that a group of Russian spies was driven out in 2022.
The best spy function in Australia has unveiled “ruthless” deeds of international espionage, including attempts to infiltrate a media organization, to break into limited laboratories, to seduce information from individuals and focus on locations such as LinkedIn, warning that the level of foreign spections activity that of the 1980s has been over.
Mike Burgess, director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO), detailed for the first time the economic costs of billion dollars from secret operations to Australia during a speech at the Hawke Center in Adelaide on Thursday evening.
“We must understand that espionage is not a picturesque, romantic fiction; it is a real, present and precious danger,” Burgess said.
He warned that “a new iteration of Great Power Competition” had led to an “insatiable appetite for internal information”, in which ASIO has stopped 24 foreign intelligence operations in the last three years.
The ASIO director-general referred directly to the accusation of two Russian Australian persons for alleged espionage last year, and also confirmed that a group of Russian spies was deported in 2022, a story that was first reported by the Sydney Morning Herald in 2023.

But he said that Australians would “be sincerely shocked” by the number of countries that wanted to obtain strategic intelligence, warning from foreign spy agencies were also “aggressive focused on” areas such as science, projects in the public sector and investments, green technology, critical minerals and antarctic research, as well as “taking”.

“The obvious candidates are very active – I have previously called China, Russia and Iran – but many other countries also focus on everyone and everything that could give them a strategic or tactical benefit, including sensitive but non -classified information,” said Burgess.

“Foreign intelligence services can personally obtain this material – convincing, forcing or seducing insiders to provide sensitive information – and through technology.”

Burgess says that referring to work on Aukus ‘reckless’

In one case, an agent of a foreign intelligence service tried to take a job at an Australian media organization “with the aim of shaping the report and receiving an early warning for critical stories”.

Burgess also said that secret agents have successfully convinced a civil servant to give names and addresses of people who were considered “dissidents” by a foreign power, while an academician broke with links to a foreign government in a limited laboratory to film its content.

Mike Burgess said that many countries “focus on everyone and everything that could give them a strategic or tactical advantage”. Source: MONKEY / Dominic Giannini

“They are just the tip of a espionage -iceberg,” he said.

The ASIO director-general warned that at least 35,000 people advertised their access to sensitive information on only one social media site, so that they were exposed to spies that occur as main hunters and recruiters.
He expressed disbelief in 400 people who explicitly referred to their employment about projects related to Aukus.
“I understand that people have to bring themselves to the market, but telling social media that you have a security authorization or on a very classified project is more than naive; it invites the attention of a foreign intelligence service,” he warned.
The impact of espionage to the Australian economy was $ 12.5 billion in the 2024 financial year, according to a report released by Asio and the Australian Institute of Criminology.
The count comprises an estimated $ 2 billion in confidential secrets stolen from Australian companies.

An example of Burgess included the smuggling of plant material from a rare and valuable fruit tree species, obtained by a member of a foreign delegation in a “sensitive” facility.

In another case, commercial secrets were obtained during an event for Defense industry via malware on an infected USB.
Burgess emphasized a recent incident in which “an expensive and highly advanced military capacity” was developed in Australia, “only for another country to reveal a prototype with unmistakable similarities shortly thereafter”.
“Although I cannot categorically say that espionage was involved, spy references did not believe in coincidences,” he said.
Burgess estimated that the successful activities of Asio had prevented further considerable economic damage.
“I still don’t know for sure if we, as a nation, really understand that espionage is our safety, democracy, sovereignty, economy and social fabric,” he warned, and urged Australians to stay vigilant and act, but also to “respond exaggerated”.
“Do not assume that every diplomat is a spy, every friend request is suspected, every community group is connected to an intelligence service or every foreign investment application is a potential problem,” he said, adding “common sense is a good place to start”.
“If you spy in this country, Asio is looking for you. And if you are spied in this country, Asio will look forward to you.”

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