Counter terrorism police operations in Australia being targeted by the very suspects they are pursuing

POLICE forces are under siege from international crime gangs and rogues states hacking their computer systems for information to sell to the highest bidder.

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EXCLUSIVE

COUNTER terrorism police operations are being targeted by the very suspects they are pursuing.

Suspects are going out of their way to learn law enforcement methodologies — including response times, movements and investigations.

The development comes amid revelations police forces are under siege from international crime gangs and rogues states hacking their computer systems for information to sell to the highest bidder and to refine their own criminal enterprises.

In a worrying indication of the terror threat domestically, News Corp Australia has learnt persons of interest to police for direct terror affiliations and suspicions are actively running counter surveillance measures to learn police tactics.

State and federal police, and Australian spy group ASIO have reported to government evidence the known suspects in this country, believed to be predominantly from Sydney and Melbourne where 80 per cent of terror suspects, plots and arrests nationally have hailed from, were going out of their way to learn police operational procedures specifically linked to counter terrorism.

One law enforcement source described it almost like a game where groups, some of whom are suspected of sympathies, and or affiliations with known ISIS suspects, are actively tracking who is watching them and employing their own counter surveillance tactics.

It is as rudimentary as watching who is putting their colleagues and certain businesses under surveillance and putting those agents under surveillance through to monitoring legal cases for clues as to which of their own tactics, including encrypted apps they use for communications are being monitored or talked about and changing their own methods accordingly.

It is understood joint AFP and state-based police operations currently have 75 active terror operations tracking more than 180 suspects nationally.

But the network is a lot broader with associates and families of these targets also actively tracking the watchers.

It is known police have upgraded their tactics and defences to reflect the threat including increased monitoring of their own stations.

NSW Police Association boss Scott Weber said he was aware of the trend and police had changed methods to respond to this growing threat.

“The world has changed not for the better, the nature of policing is more difficult now where threats are broad and internally and police have to be extra vigilant not just during work time but off duty as well and now we are seeing police officers becoming targets and individually singled out as a focus of terrorism,” he said.

He added members, some of whom had raised the alarm, had been warned of the emerging threat.

A Joint Counter Terrorism Team in Sydney arrest a man, 33, in Greenacre, Sydney, earlier this month and charged him with firearm offences.

Intelligence Risks chief executive Neil Fergus said ironically the risk of a suspect detecting and countering police operations increased exponentially as operations progressed from just ASIO to police level, to gather evidentiary material to create a court brief to prosecute.

“The reality is when you get to a point you need to bring in those police forces and they do not have the same secrecy provisions let alone tools and equipment to protect their operations,” the noted counter terrorism expert said.

“There is risk involved in any of these type of operations but an acceptance of that risk ... they (terror suspects) are not doing it in any sophisticated way but that doesn't matter if they are doing surveillance on a particular law enforcement facility which is what I’ve been told has been detected, then it is of considerable concern. No-one in law enforcement is taking this likely.”

He said it was clear those supporting ISIS have been told by ISIS overseas to target law enforcement.

“They have been exhorted repeatedly to take the attack to security, intelligence and law enforcement officials and there has been an absolute clear pattern of those type of attacks happening in overseas jurisdictions,” he said.

Police would not comment publicly for operational reasons on the threat nor the international crime groups attempting hacks on their computer systems.

News Corp Australia can reveal police at state and federal level have been combating multiple hack attempts in recent months from sources abroad including from rogue states and suspected criminal groups.

Despite the cyber assault deemed “persistent and sophisticated” no police system has been breached and intelligence of adversaries behind the attempts noted and matched to attempted hacks across other Australian government and law enforcement operations.

The hack attempts are believed to be both malicious but also to gain “strategic and operational intelligence” that can then be sold to criminal or terror groups.

A spokeswoman for the Attorney-General’s Department said yesterday that “challenges” to national security on all fronts were under constant review including ensuring laws to tackle new forms of crimes were updated.

“This includes the challenge of cyber security, in government, in business and in law enforcement,” she said.

“The Commonwealth works closely with its state and territory counterparts to ensure our police and security agencies have the tools they need to keep themselves and our community safe.”

Victorian police officers stand guard outside St Paul's Cathedral in Melbourne after it was alleged to be one of three potential targets for terrorists on Christmas Day. Four people charged were among seven arrested on December 22 and 23. Picture: AFP / William West

According to the Australian Cyber Security Centre all Australian networks that hold Personally Identifiable Information (PII) were being targeted by a range of adversaries.

“Terrorists and hacktivists hack and release PII in order to embarrass, intimidate or threaten individuals and organisations,” its latest threat assessment states.

It noted terror suspects, unlike other criminal entities, currently posed a “low cyber threat” because they only had “rudimentary” skills to hack despite their recognised broad social media skills and wide use of encryption technology to communicate with each other.

NSW Police arrest two teenagers in Bankstown, on October 12 who they allege were planning an imminent terrorist attack. Picture: Seven News

“ISIL (Islamic State) sympathisers have published details of alleged Western government and military personnel, including a small number of Australians, as ‘hit lists’ while encouraging radicalised individuals to harass or attack them. Some Government employees had used work email addresses for personal business, meaning they could be easily identified and singled out. Often databases are released without context, but ISIL-affiliated individuals have enriched basic PII with information from social media to provide fuller profiles of the targets. Concerns over the vulnerability of individuals’ personal information and the potential threat of an attack provided ISIL with valuable propaganda for comparably little effort.”

It concluded however while terrorist directly lacked the skill set to hack: “With intent and investment, terrorist groups could potentially develop more sophisticated cyber capabilities.”

Australian courts have jailed 16 people for terrorism related offences in recent times with another 38 currently going through trials.

Originally published as Counter terrorism police operations in Australia being targeted by the very suspects they are pursuing