Our investigative and operational efforts continue to mitigate the espionage threat from hostile foreign intelligence services (FIS) targeting Australia. Most notable was our disruption of an Australia-based foreign national who was assisting a team of foreign intelligence officers.

These officers were operating to penetrate the Australian Government and the National Intelligence Community (NIC) by seeking to recruit a number of Australian security clearance holders who could provide them with access to classified Australian Government information.

Their primary goal to covertly acquire classified information about the NIC’s current operations and capabilities, especially those directed against their nation state, would potentially have granted their government significant strategic advantage over Australia. We conducted overt activity against the Australia-based foreign national and the officer network, which thwarted the foreign intelligence operation and prevented the passage of classified information to the FIS.