ASIO tracking foreign spies on dating apps Tinder and Bumble

The boss of Australia’s counter-espionage agency ASIO has warned foreign spies appear to be using dating apps such as Tinder, Bumble and Hinge to get sensitive information from Australians.

ASIO director-general Mike Burgess also revealed his agency recently foiled a foreign interference plot in the lead-up to an election in Australia, which involved an attempt to install political candidates at the behest of a foreign government.

ASIO’s Mike Burgess warns foreign spies have tried to disrupt an Australian election.Credit: James Brickwood

In his latest annual threat assessment delivered on Wednesday night, Mr Burgess for the first time confirmed that espionage and foreign interference has supplanted terrorism as ASIO’s principal security concern.

He specifically raised concern about suspicious activity on online dating platforms, warning potential victims to be careful.

“In the last two years, thousands of Australians with access to sensitive information have been targeted by foreign spies using social media profiles. These spies are adept at using the internet for their recruitment efforts,” Mr Burgess said.

“I’ve previously highlighted our concerns about approaches on professional networking sites, but during the pandemic we’ve seen this threat spread. There’s been a jump in suspicious approaches on messaging platforms like WhatsApp, for example.

“ASIO is also tracking suspicious approaches on dating platforms such as Tinder, Bumble and Hinge. My message for any potential victims on these sites is a familiar one – if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.”

Mr Burgess said Australians needed to be particularly on guard this year in the lead-up to the federal election, which will likely be in May.

He confirmed ASIO recently detected and disrupted a foreign interference plot in the lead-up to an election in Australia, but wouldn’t identify the jurisdiction because “we are seeing attempts at foreign interference at all levels of government, in all states and territories”.

The case involved a wealthy individual who covertly sought to advance the interests of the foreign power and undermine Australia’s sovereignty, Mr Burgess said.

The person, who Mr Burgess nicknamed “the puppeteer”, hired another individual to enable foreign interference operations and used an offshore bank account to provide hundreds of thousands of dollars for operating expenses.

“The employee hired by the puppeteer began identifying candidates likely to run in the election who either supported the interests of the foreign government or who were assessed as vulnerable to inducements and cultivation,” he said. “The employee used existing relationships with politicians, staffers and journalists to select potential targets, without revealing the secret intent, the foreign connection or the puppeteer’s involvement.”

While the political candidates had no knowledge of the foreign interference plot, Mr Burgess said if ASIO hadn’t acted some of the candidates could have been elected and then encouraged to hire foreign agents or proxies as political staffers.

He said the new parliamentarians could then have been asked for information about the party’s position on defence policy, human rights, foreign investment or trade – with the information then sent to the foreign power.

Mr Burgess also revealed that ASIO had “painstakingly” mapped out another foreign intelligence service’s onshore network of sources and contacts, and then “picked it apart”.

“Australians who were targeted by the foreign intelligence service included current and former high-ranking government officials, academics, members of think-tanks, business executives and members of a diaspora community,” he said.

“When we interviewed members of the network, some of the contacts suspected they’d engaged with spies, but most had no idea – and were shocked when we knocked on their doors.”

Wednesday night’s address was the third annual threat assessment by Mr Burgess, who shocked many in the intelligence community when he began delivering the speeches in 2020, which always include case studies of some of ASIO’s operations.

Mr Burgess said he wanted to be as transparent as possible, saying this mindset crystallised during his career with cyber spy agency the Defence Signals Directorate, particularly when the agency was accused of an illegal act.

He said the allegations were proved to be completely unfounded, but the affair taught him how difficult it can be for a secret organisation to defend itself.

“Not long after that incident, a journalist put a salacious and inaccurate claim to a certain intelligence agency – I won’t say which one, or even in which country,” he said.

“Instead of saying, ‘that’s ridiculous’ – or ‘hell no’, which would have been my response – the brains trust replied with, ‘no comment – and that’s off the record’.

“The story got published and the next morning there was much head-shaking and tut-tutting as spy chiefs wondered how the newspaper could get it so wrong. The journalist got it so wrong because the agency ignored an opportunity to make it right.”

Mr Burgess also said ASIO was growing increasingly concerned about online radicalisation, adding vaccine mandates and lockdown were fuelling extremism.

“The behaviours we are seeing in response to COVID lockdowns and vaccinations are not specifically left or right wing,” he said. “They are a cocktail of views, fears, frustrations and conspiracies.

“Some of the alleged violent acts at the recent Old Parliament House protest are a case in point. The
individuals involved were driven by a diverse range of grievances, including anti-vaccination agendas, conspiracy theories and anti-government sovereign citizen beliefs.”

Mr Burgess warned children as young as 13 are now embracing extremism, and this is happening with religious and ideological extremism.

“As a nation, we need to reflect on why some teenagers are hanging Nazi flags and portraits of the Christchurch killer on their bedroom walls, and why others are sharing beheading videos. And just as importantly, we must reflect on what we can do about it,” Mr Burgess said.