Australia's spy agency foils three plots to harm individuals on its soil

Australia’s spy agency has uncovered three separate foreign plots to physically harm individuals living in the country, Director-General of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) Mike Burgess revealed on Wednesday.

In his annual address outlining national security threats, Burgess did not disclose the countries involved.

However, he did state that an unnamed regime had planned to harm or assassinate one or more individuals in Australia as part of a broader global effort to silence its critics.

Burgess also detailed how ASIO intervened in another case to prevent a human rights advocate from travelling to a third country, where they would have been harmed or killed.

ASIO, in collaboration with international security partners, disrupted the scheme at an early stage. Burgess did not elaborate on the nature of the third foreign plot.

“In a small number of cases, we held grave fears for the life of the person being targeted,” Burgess stated during his speech at ASIO headquarters in Canberra.

Cyber attacks also a threat

Additionally, ASIO identified a cyber unit linked to a foreign government attempting to infiltrate critical infrastructure networks in the US.

The same group had made similar incursions in Australia, seeking to map and compromise systems for potential future cyberattacks.

“ASIO worked closely with our American counterpart to evict the hackers and shut down their global accesses, including nodes here in Australia,” Burgess said.

Burgess warned that foreign intelligence services are increasingly targeting Australia’s AUKUS security partnership with the United States and the United Kingdom, particularly efforts to develop a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines.

“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,” he said.

“AUKUS will remain a priority target for intelligence collection, including by countries we consider friendly,” Burgess added, without naming specific nations.