ASIO exposes plot by three governments to target critics in Australia

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Australia’s spy agency boss says it discovered three foreign governments plotting to physically harm people living in Australia.

Mike Burgess, Director General of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), the main domestic spy agency, did not name the countries tonight in his latest annual address outlining threats to the country.

One government attempted to trick a human rights advocate into travelling from Australia to a third country where plotters planned to injure or kill their target. ASIO intervened to prevent the travel.

Mike Burgess, Director General of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) did not name the countries tonight in his latest annual address outlining threats to the country. (Photo: Alex Ellinghausen)

“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 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 US authorities to a 12-year-old boy plotting mass shootings in the US.

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 US. 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.

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Spies target AUKUS partnership with the US and UK

Foreign spy agencies targeted Australia’s AUKUS partnership with the US and Britain that will deliver an Australian fleet of submarines powered by US nuclear technology.

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.”