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Sky News AU
5 hours ago
- Sky News AU
'Wake up call': Securty expert says Australians must take security more seriously following ASIO boss' espionage warning
Strategic Analysis Australia founder and Director Peter Jennings told Sky News host Steve Price that comments made by the boss of ASIO should be a wake-up call to all Australians on the threat foreign espionage poses. ASIO chief Mike Burgess at a conference in Adelaide revealed foreign espionage was costing the Australian economy $12.5 billion a year as he unveiled the inaugural cost of espionage report. Reacting on Sky News on Friday, Mr Jennings told host Steve Price that it was not surprising. 'This is industrial level espionage and intellectual property theft," he said. 'And of course it's being directed against Australia because we're a high technology country with very significant alliance relations with the United States and other developed economies, and it will be happening all the time.' Mr Jennings said that Australia needed to be taking steps to protect its military and economy from people who were looking to take advantage of the situation, adding that businesses needed to be aware of the risks they are facing. 'Mike Burgess touches on this in his speech as well, how naive Australians are to imagine that it couldn't possibly happen here or it wouldn't happen to my business,' he said. 'And Mike actually quotes Australian officials saying, oh, well, no one would be interested in going after my information. This is industrial level espionage and intellectual property theft' Mr Burgess on Thursday said "Many entities do not know their secrets have been stolen, or do not realise they've been stolen by espionage, or do not report the theft.' He also said that there were many countries that were committing this espionage. 'The obvious candidates are very active – I've previously named China, Russia and Iran – but many other countries are also targeting anyone and anything that could give them a strategic or tactical advantage, including sensitive but unclassified information.' Mr Burgess also said that he could not understand why some people were mentioning on social media that they carried a security clearance. "On just one professional networking site, the profiles of more than 35,000 Australians indicate they have access to sensitive and potentially classified information. Around 7,000 reference their work in the defence sector, including the specific project they are working on, the team they are working in, and the critical technologies they are working with," he said. "Close to 400 explicitly say they work on AUKUS, and the figure rises above 2,000 if you include broader references to 'submarines' and 'nuclear'.
Sky News AU
11 hours ago
- Sky News AU
‘Remarkable': Espionage report emphasises the ‘naïve' way Australians think
Strategic Analysis Australia Director Peter Jennings says it's remarkable how 'naïve' Australians are to imagine that their information or businesses wouldn't be the target of espionage. 'If you search for this type of information, you'll see that it's happening all the way around the world,' Mr Jennings told Sky News host Steve Price. 'China is a very, very large part of that, but not alone. 'I think it's just remarkable … how naïve Australians are to imagine that it couldn't possibly happen here.'
Perth Now
17 hours ago
- Perth Now
Mercy plea for 'courageous' tax office whistleblower
Tax office whistleblower Richard Boyle's crimes were "grounded in moral courage" and he should be spared conviction or jail time, a judge has heard. In a plea deal with prosecutors, the 49-year-old Adelaide man admitted four criminal charges linked to his exposure of unethical debt-recovery practices at the Australian Tax Office. During sentencing submissions in Adelaide District Court on Friday, Boyle's barrister Steven Millsteed KC said it was "a rare and exceptional case". "The court is asked to sentence an individual whose offending conduct is not motivated by some nefarious purpose, self-interest or malice … but by a sincere belief that he was acting in the public interest," he said. Boyle has admitted disclosing protected information to another entity, making a record of protected information, using a listening device to record a private conversation and recording other people's tax file numbers. With the exception of one charge, which involved recording a phone conversation with his dying father, Boyle's only motivation was to obtain evidence of serious maladministration with the tax office, Mr Millsteed said. "His conduct was grounded in moral courage and a deep commitment to public service," the barrister said. Boyle had since lost his job, suffered depression, anxiety and "full-blown chronic PTSD", and his family was in a "precarious financial situation", he added. The former public servant had therefore suffered enough, making it appropriate for him to receive a bond without conviction, Mr Millsteed said. Boyle, a former debt-collection officer at the tax office, first raised concerns internally about debt-recovery practices in October 2017. Believing his complaints had been ignored, he went public on the ABC's Four Corners program about the tactics used against taxpayers who owed the ATO money. Mr Millsteed said Boyle's whistleblowing did some public good. "It resulted in the Inspector-General of Taxation conducting an investigation into the ATO's use of garnishee notes and changes were made in respect of that," he said. Prosecutor Nicholas Robinson KC said he did not take issue with the proposition that Boyle "was doing things for what he thought was good reason". "However, it can't be ignored that he knew that he was breaching the law," he said. It was wrong to argue that a breach of the law was minor because it was based on a genuine, morally held belief, Mr Robinson said. "That can't be and isn't the law … it's a court of law, not a court of morals," he said. Mr Robinson urged Judge Liesl Kudelka to record convictions but did not oppose a suspended prison sentence. Outside court, Whistleblowers Justice Fund founder Rex Patrick said the case was a "great injustice" and it was shameful Boyle had been pursued by the tax office. "Most Australians would consider him to be a hero," he said. The case also sent a message to others in the public service that they shouldn't blow the whistle on wrongdoing, the former federal senator said. "Richard has suffered tremendously … he has been dragged to hell and back," Mr Patrick said. "He did what was in the public interest, good came from it and he ends up facing a conviction." Boyle will be sentenced on August 28. Lifeline 13 11 14 beyondblue 1300 22 4636
