The country’s top spy boss has issued a series of ominous warnings about a treacherous politician who has ‘sold out Australia’.
ASIO director general Mike Burgess sat down for an interview with 60 Minutes to discuss the findings of his annual threat assessment.
Mr Burgess revealed there is at least one nation state laying the groundwork to potentially sabotage key Australian infrastructure in the future.
He said the “A-team” – a team operating within a “particular foreign intelligence agency” – has become one of the agency’s biggest threats.
It was also revealed that a former politician had been ‘successfully cultivated and recruited’ by the A-team and that they were knowingly helping them.
Mr Burgess said the A-team scours professional networking sites looking for Australians with access to high-level security, defense and risk information.
ASIO boss Mike Burgess (pictured) has taken shots at a former politician who allegedly betrayed Australia while working for a ‘certain foreign intelligence agency’
On Wednesday, Burgess revealed the treacherous politician was ‘selling out’ the country during his annual threat assessment speech at Australian Parliament House (pictured)
In a bombshell interview with 60 Minutes to be broadcast on Sunday, Mr Burgess spoke about the former politician who was hired by the A-team.
‘They’ll know who I’m talking about. I have no doubt they knew what they were doing. They have absolutely failed their country,” said the agitated spy boss.
Mr Burgess added that rogue countries targeting Australia’s intelligence services “pose a threat to our way of life”.
‘(The situation is) unprecedented in human history. Foreign interference in the political system takes place at all levels of government and targets all parties in this country.’
On Wednesday, Burgess said that while a terrorist attack was “possible”, the risk of espionage and foreign interference was “certain”.
‘The threat is real. The threat is now. And the threat is deeper and broader than you might think,” he said.
He said the A-team used “fake, Anglicized personas” posing as consultants, headhunters, officials, academics and researchers from fictitious companies to approach the targets.
Discussing the former politician who had worked with the A-team, Mr Burgess said they ‘have sold out their country, party and former colleagues to advance the interests of the foreign regime.”
“At one point, the former politician even suggested bringing a relative of a prime minister into the spies’ orbit,” he said.
‘Fortunately that plot did not go ahead, but other plans did.’
Mr Burgess did not clarify who the former politician was, or whether they had unwittingly become involved with the A-team or had done so on purpose.
In a bombshell interview with 60 Minutes, Mr Burgess revealed that malign countries were targeting Australian intelligence, but did not reveal which countries specifically
Mr Burgess shared on Wednesday the execution of the ‘A-team’ – a team operating within a ‘particular foreign intelligence service’
In another scheme, leading Australian political figures and academics went abroad for an all-expenses-paid conference attended by a host of A-team spies.
The A-team members posed as bureaucrats, building relationships with the Australians and ‘aggressively attacking’ them.
“A few weeks after the conference concluded, one of the academics began briefing the A-team on Australia’s national security and defense priorities,” Burgess said.
‘Another Australian, an aspiring politician, provided insight into his party’s factional dynamics, analysis of recent elections and the names of newcomers – presumably so the A-team could target them too.
‘ASIO disrupted this plan and confronted the Australians involved. While some were unaware, others knew they were working for a foreign intelligence service.”
Mr Burgess said ASIO had helped weed out the ignorant, breaking ties between the others and the foreign actors, adding: ‘Several individuals should be grateful that the laws on espionage and foreign interference are not retroactive ‘.
Mr Burgess said ASIO confronted the A-team directly online last year.
‘The spy was spied on. The player was played against,” he said.
He said too many Australians missed the warning signs or made the A-team’s job “too easy”.
“On just one professional networking site, there are 14,000 Australians publicly bragging about having a security clearance or working in the intelligence community. Some even present themselves as intelligence officers – even though they prove they are not particularly good,” he said.
“I appreciate that people need to market themselves, but please be smart and discreet – don’t make yourself an easy target.”
Mr Burgess said the A-team was Australia’s biggest security threat
Mr Burgess also issued a chilling warning that he feared sabotage – the key security problems of the 1950s – could reemerge, especially in relation to critical infrastructure.
“There are not many things that terrorists and spies have in common, but sabotage is one of them,” he said.
‘ASIO sees both cohorts talking about sabotage, conducting research into sabotage and sometimes conducting reconnaissance for sabotage – but I emphasize that they have no intention of carrying out sabotage at this time.’
He said ASIO was aware that one nation state is making “multiple attempts to scan critical infrastructure” in Australia and elsewhere, targeting water, energy and transport energy networks.
Mr Burgess described the exploration as “very advanced” and a way to map networks and test digital locks. He said there was a chance the country could commit sabotage in the future.
Referring to the impact that last year’s Optus network outage – which was not related to sabotage – had on Australia, Burgess wondered what it would mean for the country if a foreign state “brought down all the networks or turned off the power during a heat wave?’
“I assure you these are not hypotheses,” he said.
“Foreign governments currently have crack cyber teams exploring these possibilities, although they are unlikely to materialize until a conflict or near conflict.”