Attorney general refers to historical range of turncoats, from Edward Snowden to Macbeth, Guy Fawkes and Judas Iscariot

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

Australia’s attorney general, George Brandis, has warned of the risk posed by “trusted insiders” ranging from Judas Iscariot to the “treacherous” former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

Brandis, a frequent critic of Snowden for leaking documents related to US intelligence and other “five eyes” partners including Australia, told a security conference that “the threat of the trusted insider is an enduring one because sadly treachery is endemic in human nature among some”.

The attorney general told the 2014 Security in Government conference in Canberra on Tuesday that a trusted insider could become an “insidious enemy”.

“Trusted insiders are exactly that – they work within our organisations, they have access to our information – they know how things work,” he said. “From that privileged position, a trusted insider can cause enormous damage.”

Brandis said the trusted insider was “a familiar figure throughout our history, and indeed, our literature” and he cited Macbeth and Brutus.

“Judas Iscariot is one of the historically best-known examples of a trusted insider,” he said.

“Guy Fawkes was part of a revolutionary group who plotted to blow up most of England’s aristocracy, including the king, in 1605. Using a pseudonym, Guy Fawkes and his co-conspirators leveraged their positions and contacts to place barrels of gunpowder under the House of Lords. The infamous gunpowder plot was foiled by authorities who caught Fawkes before he could carry out his treacherous intentions.

“More recently, I don’t need to remind anyone in this room about the damage caused to the US and her allies through the treachery of Edward Snowden.

“Snowden, and his apologists, claim that he acted in the public interest but he has sought refuge in a country that is an historical opponent of the US. From there he continued to leak the information to which he had privileged access as a government contractor and which he exfiltrated unlawfully.”

Brandis said Snowden’s revelations had “placed Australia’s relationships with countries in our region under strain”.

That appeared to be a reference to the row over revelations Australia’s spy agencies attempted to listen in on the personal phone calls of the Indonesian president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, and targeted the mobile phones of his wife, senior ministers and confidants.

The disclosures, published by Guardian Australia and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in November last year, were based on a top-secret 2009 document supplied by Snowden.

Australia and Indonesia’s foreign ministers last week emphasised the ongoing strength of the relationship as they signed a “joint understanding on a code of conduct” committing the countries not to use intelligence resources to harm each other’s interests.

The US president, Barack Obama, has criticised Snowden over the leaks, but the disclosures prompted surveillance and intelligence reforms in a bid to win back citizens’ trust. Obama argued in January that the resulting debate would “make us stronger”.

In the speech on Tuesday, Brandis also criticised the US army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning.

Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison for passing hundreds of thousands of classified military documents to WikiLeaks. The documents included US state department cables and Iraq and Afghanistan battlefield logs and files relating to Guantánamo Bay detainees. The material included a video of a 2007 US airstrike in Baghdad that killed a dozen people, including two Reuters journalists.

Using Manning’s previous name, Brandis said: “Bradley Manning copied thousands of classified documents while working as an intelligence analyst for the US army.

“He leaked a quarter-of-a-million diplomatic cables and half a million army reports to the website WikiLeaks. Manning’s leaks affected diplomatic relationships between allies. Of particular concern was the potential for the information to expose Iraqi citizens who had helped US forces.

“Of course, a lot of what Snowden and Manning have revealed is interesting. But there is an important distinction between something being interesting to the public and it being in the public interest for it to be disclosed.”

Brandis said technological advances meant a microchip no larger than a thumbnail could now carry enough classified material to fill a heavy suitcase.

“What has not changed since the 1950s, or the 1600s, or Imperial Rome for that matter, is the threat posed by the trusted insider who wishes to do us harm,” he said.

Brandis called on public and private sector organisations to foster a culture of security, with employees being empowered to challenge colleagues who did not comply with policies.

He said the government was strengthening its personnel security policy, including providing assurance about the suitability of people authorised to access resources.

“I have asked my department to further explore the future of vetting, in a paradigm of evolving threats, increasing data availability and the heightened awareness of the damage that can be inflicted by a trusted insider,” Brandis said. “This approach is consistent with that of our international partners.”

The Australian government presented legislation to parliament in July that would toughen penalties for intelligence officers who leaked confidential material.

It would also create a new offence punishable by five years in jail for any person who discloses information relating to “special intelligence operations” – a provision that lawyers, media companies and the journalists’ union have argued would criminalise reporting of Snowden-style leaks.