Security News > 2024 > February > Australian spy chief fears sabotage of critical infrastructure

In a speech delivered yesterday, Mike Burgess noted that countering Soviet sabotage plots was a significant reason ASIO was created.

"Nationalists and racists are probably just mouthing off. But the spy chief indicated that ASIO"is aware of one nation-state conducting multiple attempts to scan critical infrastructure in Australia and other countries, targeting water, transport and energy networks.

Burgess asked his audience to consider the November 2023 outage at Australian telco Optus, and the disruption that caused.

Burgess also revealed that Australia is the priority target of a group run by a foreign intelligence service - and that the group has subverted a former Australian politician.

"Late last year, the team leader thought he was grooming another Australian online," Burgess recalled.

Burgess wound up his talk by urging Australian organizations to get more serious about security.

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https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/02/29/asio_threat_assessment_2024/