ASIO Chief Highlights 'Unyielding' International Spying Activities

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ASIO director-general Mike Burgess has warned of the “real, present and costly danger” posed by foreign espionage.
Australia’s top spy chief outlined the impact of espionage on Australia’s economy in a speech on Thursday night.
Burgess also confirmed that a group of Russian spies were expelled in 2022.

Australia’s top spy chief has revealed “relentless” acts of international espionage, including attempts to infiltrate a media organisation, break into restricted laboratories, seduce information from individuals, and target talent on sites such as LinkedIn, warning that the level of foreign spy activity has surpassed that of the 1980s.

Mike Burgess, director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), detailed for the first time the billion-dollar economic cost of covert operations to Australia during a speech at the Hawke Centre in Adelaide on Thursday night.

“We need to understand espionage is not some quaint, romantic fiction; it’s a real, present and costly danger,” Burgess said.

He warned that “a new iteration of great power competition” had led to an “insatiable appetite for inside information”, with ASIO stopping 24 foreign intelligence operations in the last three years.

The ASIO director-general directly referenced the charging of two Russian Australian individuals for alleged espionage last year, and also confirmed a group of Russian spies were expelled in 2022, a story first reported by the Sydney Morning Herald in 2023.

But he said Australians would be “genuinely shocked” by the number of nations looking to obtain strategic intelligence, warning foreign spy agencies were also “aggressively targeting” areas like science, public sector projects and investments, green technology, critical minerals and Antarctic research, as well as taking a “very unhealthy interest in AUKUS”.

“The obvious candidates are very active — I’ve previously named China, Russia and Iran — but many other countries are also targeting anyone and anything that could give them a strategic or tactical advantage, including sensitive but unclassified information,” Burgess said.

“Foreign intelligence services can obtain this material in person — convincing, coercing or seducing insiders to impart sensitive information — and through technology.”

Burgess says referencing employment on AUKUS ‘reckless’

In one case, an agent from a foreign intelligence agency tried to take a job at an Australian media organisation “with the aim of shaping its reporting and receiving early warning of critical stories”.

Burgess also said covert operatives successfully convinced a public servant to provide names and addresses of people viewed as “dissidents” by a foreign power, while an academic with links to a foreign government broke into a restricted laboratory to film its contents.

A man standing in front of a blue curtain.

Mike Burgess said many countries are “targeting anyone and anything that could give them a strategic or tactical advantage”. Source: AAP / Dominic Giannini

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

The ASIO director-general warned that at least 35,000 people were advertising their access to sensitive information on just one social media site, exposing them to spies posing as head-hunters and recruiters.

He expressed incredulity at 400 people who explicitly referenced their employment on projects related to AUKUS.

“I get that people need to market themselves, but telling social media you hold a security clearance or work on a highly classified project is more than naive; it’s recklessly inviting 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 tally includes an estimated $2 billion worth of confidential trade secrets stolen from Australian businesses.

One example detailed by Burgess involved the smuggling of plant matter from a rare and valuable fruit tree species, obtained by a member of a foreign delegation at a “sensitive” facility.

In another case, company secrets were obtained at a defence industry event through malware on an infected USB.

Burgess highlighted a recent incident where “an expensive and highly sophisticated military capability” was developed in Australia, “only for another country to unveil a prototype with unmistakable similarities shortly afterwards”.

“While I cannot categorically say espionage was involved, spy chiefs do not believe in coincidences,” he said.

Burgess estimated ASIO’s successful operations had prevented further significant economic damage.

“I’m still not sure we, as a nation, truly understand the damage espionage inflicts on our security, democracy, sovereignty, economy and social fabric,” he warned, urging Australians to remain vigilant and act if concerned but also not to “overreact”.

“Don’t assume every diplomat is a spy, every friend request is suspicious, 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 are spying in this country, ASIO is looking for you. And if you are being spied on in this country, ASIO is looking out for you.”