Foreign interference in Australia is higher than it has ever been, and “sleeper agents” for foreign powers have lain undetected for years in Australia before being uncovered, the head of Australia’s domestic spy agency has warned.

In wide-ranging annual threat assessment address delivered in Canberra on Monday night, the director general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (Asio) Mike Burgess reiterated earlier security agency warnings that a terror attack in Australia is “probable”, and said that rightwing extremism, brought into “sharp terrible focus” by last year’s Christchurch massacre, was manifesting in “small cells” of adherents gathering to salute Nazi flags, inspect weapons and disseminate “hateful ideology”.

The intelligence chief said the threat of rightwing extremism was real and growing, and that the number of overall terrorism leads under investigation had doubled over the past year.

“Our view is that the threat of terrorism will remain a constant feature of the global security environment in 2020 and the threat to Australia and Australian interests will remain.”

Australia’s terrorism threat level remains at “probable” and would remain unacceptably high for the foreseeable future, Burgess said.

“The unfortunate reality is that, right now, terrorists are still plotting to harm Australians,” he said.

Asio had discovered children as young as 13 being targeted by extremist recruiters.

“As a father, I find it truly disturbing to see cases where extremists are actively trying to recruit children who have only just started high school and are as young as 13 or 14,” Burgess said.

He said the level of threat Australia faced from foreign interference and espionage was unprecedented.

“It is higher now than it was at the height of the cold war.

“Indeed, some of the tactics being used against us are so sophisticated, they sound like they’ve sprung from the pages of a cold war thriller.”

The intelligence chief revealed for the first time the case of a “sleeper agent” sent to Australia by an unspecified foreign intelligence service.

“The agent lay dormant for many years, quietly building community and business links, all the while secretly maintaining contact with his offshore handlers,” Burgess said.

“The agent started feeding his spymasters information about Australia-based expatriate dissidents, which directly led to harassment of the dissidents in Australia and their relatives overseas.”

The Asio chief said the agent was rewarded with “significant cash payments” in exchange for providing “on-the-ground logistical support for spies who travelled to Australia to conduct intelligence activities”.

“These are the sort of insidious activities Asio works to detect and disrupt every day,” Burgess said, confirming Asio had disrupted the operation.

Asio has also uncovered cases where foreign spies have sought to establish sophisticated hacking infrastructure in Australia targeting computers containing sensitive and classified information. China has previously been blamed for large-scale hacking operations in Australia, including on the Australian National University.

Burgess said while violent Islamist fundamentalism remained Asio’s primary concern, the threat of rightwing extremism – of the type espoused by the Australian-born Christchurch killer – was “real and growing”.

“In suburbs around Australia, small cells regularly meet to salute Nazi flags, inspect weapons, train in combat and share their hateful ideology.”

Burgess said Australians were signing up as members to international white supremacist hate groups such as The Base, where members use online platforms to share extremist rightwing ideologies and encourage each other into committing acts of violence.

“We expect such groups will remain an enduring threat, making more use of online propaganda to spread their messages of hate.

“While we would expect any rightwing extremist-inspired attack in Australia to be low capability, ie a knife, gun or vehicle attack, more sophisticated attacks are possible. And we also need to be mindful of state-sponsored terrorism as states seek to use terrorism to further their goals.”

An Australian earlier this year was stopped from leaving the country to fight with an extreme rightwing group on a foreign battlefield after authorities received a tip-off from Asio.

In Asio’s annual threat assessment address, delivered at the organisation’s Canberra headquarters, and before members of the Five Eyes intelligence community, Burgess said the use of the internet and new technologies were of significant and growing concern.

The director general said that while messaging apps and greater global connectivity had been a “force for good”, they carried a dark side, having been used in nine out of 10 priority counterterrorism cases.

“Technology should not be beyond the rule of law,” Burgess said, praising laws that came into force a year ago.

“I can confirm that Asio has used the Assistance and Access Act to protect Australians from serious harm.

“We needed to take advantage of the new powers within 10 days of the legislation coming into effect – a clear indication of its significance to our mission … the internet did not break as a result.

“The bottom line was this: these new powers helped Asio prevent a real risk of injury to Australians.”

The act imposes additional obligations on communications services to assist agencies, establishes new “computer access warrants” for law enforcement, and strengthens agencies’ existing “search and seizure” powers to access unencrypted data on computers and mobile phones.



