The director-general of Australia’s Secret Intelligence Service, Paul Symon, delivered a rare public address at the Lowy Institute this week to mark the service’s 70th birthday. His address was part of a commendable effort by Australia’s intelligence chiefs to build public knowledge of their activities. But it also highlighted the need for more democratic oversight of our increasingly active intelligence community.

Symon’s speech underscored how much is changing in the world of intelligence – but also that much remains the same. He outlined out how the oldest form of spying – human intelligence – is challenged by a “fundamentally digital era where our covert activities are increasingly discoverable. In this technological sandbox, authoritarian regimes are having a heyday … harnessing the booming IT economy to develop myriad forms of surveillance.”