Australia’s spy chief warns of rising terror, cyberthreats
CANBERRA – Australia’s spy chief highlighted anti-Semitic attacks such as the December massacre at Bondi Beach, a neo-Nazi bombing, cyberthreats by foreign governments and traditional espionage as just some of the security events his agency is trying to prevent. The Australian Security Intelligence
By Sph Media Limited
CANBERRA – Australia’s spy chief highlighted anti-Semitic attacks such as the December massacre at Bondi Beach, a neo-Nazi bombing, cyberthreats by foreign governments and traditional espionage as just some of the security events his agency is trying to prevent.
The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation’s (ASIO) 2026 annual assessment comes just six months after the nation’s deadliest terrorist attack, when two men shot and killed 15 people and injured others at a Hanukkah celebration.
A Royal Commission is currently investigating whether police and security services could have prevented the tragedy, while the surviving gunman has been charged.
“A small group of extremists moving to violence with little to no warning is shocking, but sadly not surprising,” Mike Burgess, director-general of ASIO, said in a speech on the evening of June 24, referring to the Bondi attack. “Illogically, hatred of Jews is one thing virtually all the violent extremist cohorts have in common.”
In the run-up to the massacre, Australia recorded a spate of anti-Semitic attacks, with the government in 2025 expelling Iran’s ambassador after uncovering credible intelligence that Tehran directed at least two of them. In his speech, Burgess said a former Australian resident living in Iraq had directed the attack on a synagogue in Melbourne, while an Australian living in Iran orchestrated the anti-Semitic firebombing of a restaurant in Sydney.
The second man is a senior official in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force, Burgess said.
In addition to those threats, at least five nations are attempting to coerce Australian citizens and residents to silence them or press them to return to the foreign country. In one case, ASIO officers caught two agents of a foreign nation attempting to coerce a person at a fast-food restaurant in the state of Victoria.
Burgess did not identify any of the nations suspected of involvement. He added that one country had been particularly active in pressuring individuals to leave Australia and return to their place of birth, noting that in 2023 at least eight people had done so after being coerced.
Over the past decade, China has pursued Operation Fox Hunt, which is a campaign to pressure some overseas Chinese citizens to return. Originally portrayed to be targeting corrupt officials and fugitives, critics say it is also used to pressure dissidents.
Burgess also warned about unnamed nations probing and hacking into critical infrastructure, following on from a warning he gave in 2025 when the ASIO chief accused Chinese state-backed hackers of probing Australian telecommunications networks. Beijing has denied those allegations.
“We discovered nation state hackers had compromised the network of an Australian critical infrastructure provider. ASIO assessed the hackers were preparing for sabotage,” he said. “They weren’t planting ‘digital dynamite’ as such, they were mapping out the network and maintaining access so they could cripple it at a time of their choosing.”
When asked if he was specifically referring to China in the speech, Burgess declined to single out any nation this time. While he stood by the comments made in 2025 identifying the Chinese state, Burgess said there is not just one nation doing this, declining to specify who ASIO thinks is behind the hacks. BLOOMBERG