Security News > 2022 > February > Swipe left: Snoops use dating apps to hook sources, says Australian Five Eyes boss

Nations running online foreign influence campaigns have turned to dating apps to recruit people privy to sensitive information, according to the director general of the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation, the nation's security agency directed against external threats and a key partner in the Five Eyes security alliance.

"In the last two years, thousands of Australians with access to sensitive information have been targeted by foreign spies using social media profiles," revealed ASIO supremo Mike Burgess during his third annual threat assessment address on Wednesday.

Burgess said ASIO now needs to track the dating apps Tinder, Bumble and Hinge, because foreign spies have started to use them, too.

Burgess said use of such apps is one reason attempts at foreign interference have become the threat that consumes most ASIO resources - ahead of terror.

The director general explained that foreign interference involves "The hidden hand of a foreign state" acting in ways that are contrary to Australia's interests.

He then outlined such a campaign that involved "a wealthy individual who maintained direct and deep connections with a foreign government and its intelligence agencies [and] did the bidding of offshore masters, knowingly and covertly seeking to advance the interests of the foreign power."

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2022/02/10/spies_using_dating_apps/