Chinese spies eye-up new Aussie targets on LinkedIn
A sharp rise in suspicious social media approaches to Australians in sensitive jobs has led to a frantic investigation by the national spy agency. Here are the jobs most likely to be targeted.
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The nation’s spy agency is investigating a sharp rise in suspicious approaches made to Australians in sensitive jobs on social media by overseas intelligence services.
Chinese spies are believed to be behind a large number of approaches on websites such as LinkedIn and are trying to get access to classified information.
The spike in online approaches comes as the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) warns the scale of foreign intelligence activity against Australian interests is now at “unprecedented” levels.
The Sunday Herald Sun can reveal ASIO is investigating a significant number of suspect contacts and says the problem is getting worse.
Government employees with access to decision makers, such as state and federal ministers, are of particular interest to foreign intelligence agencies along with those who work in the defence industry and research institutions.
The top targets are people who work in jobs which give them direct access to classified national security information.
Australian Defence Force personnel have been briefed on ways they can reduce the risk of foreign intelligence services targeting them.
The ASIO briefings focused particularly on how they can reduce the risk online and while travelling overseas.
“ASIO is seeing a concerning increase in reporting via the contact reporting scheme and other avenues of suspicious approaches on social media,” an ASIO spokesman told the Sunday Herald Sun.
“Professional and social networking sites are rich stocks of personal information, and that makes it much easier for hostile foreign intelligence services to gather the information they want.
“Critically, those same platforms then offer those hostile services a low-cost and easily disguised method to approach their targets.
“In the past, attempted recruitment was time-intensive, expensive and risky because the foreign intelligence officers would need to operate on location and in person.
“Now, they can use the internet to work from the safety of their overseas headquarters, sending thousands of friend and networking requests with the click of a mouse.”
ASIO has briefed small and medium sized defence industry companies on ways they can protect their employees from approaches by hostile foreign intelligence services.
Michael Shoebridge, director of defence, strategy and national security at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), said Chinese intelligence agencies were by far the most advanced in targeting Australia.
“The Chinese intelligence apparatus is focused on Australian government agencies and decision makers,” he said.
“Russia has always had very high capabilities in terms of foreign intelligence agencies and North Korea does have technical intelligence capabilities as well.
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“But China has outstanding resources in this area. People who are in contact with decision makers and people working in classified areas are all of interest to them.”
All Australian government employees are required to report any contacts that are suspicious, ongoing, unusual, or persistent.
“ASIO provides a range of security briefings to government and industry on the threat of espionage and foreign interference posed by hostile foreign intelligence services,” the ASIO spokesman said.
“Those briefings include advice on the threats we are seeing on social media and professional networking platforms, and ways in which people might reduce those risks.”