Australia's security environment degrading, spy chief warns

Australia faces multi-faceted threats from autocratic regimes, hackers and antisemitic extremists that present a systemic challenge to national security and are degrading the security environment, the country's spy chief said.



While Australia's terrorism threat level remains at "probable", Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) Director-General Mike Burgess said the designation does not accurately capture the "concurrent, cascading and compounding threats."



ASIO's annual assessment followed a year in which Australia confronted threats on multiple fronts, from online radicalisation, state-sponsored cyberattacks to arson against Jewish businesses and a mass shooting in Sydney.



"'Probable' does not tell the full story. The next level on the scale is 'expected', which applies when we have intelligence about a specific attack. We do not," Burgess said in the annual threat assessment speech on Wednesday night.



"But we do know the environment is degrading and acts of politically motivated violence are becoming more likely than 'probable' suggests."



Despite the challenges, Australia is well-placed to meet security threats, Burgess said. ASIO has foiled 31 major terror plots since 2014 and resolved more than a dozen major terror-related cases since the Bondi Beach mass shooting in December at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration that killed 15 people.