Spy agency cracking down on ‘reckless' boasts by people with top-secret clearance
ASIO director-general Mike Burgess said on Thursday that more than 35,000 Australians had exposed themselves by 'recklessly' implying on professional networking sites they had access to sensitive information, with almost 2500 declaring they had a security clearance.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said on Friday stricter conditions would be enforced to stamp out the practice after the government moved responsibility for the highest levels of clearance to ASIO's purview from the dedicated agency which handles lower level security passes.
'What ASIO is going to start doing with those top secret clearances is just make it a condition [to not post about it online], he told ABC's News Breakfast. 'And if you start putting it up on social media, then what you put up on social media will no longer be true because you won't hold the clearance any more. If you're going to have a top-secret clearance, you need to show that you're worthy of it.'
Burke said the government had given similar advice to security-clearance holders after the issue was first raised by Burgess in 2023, resulting in an 85 per cent reduction in the number of people boasting of security clearances online.
He said Australians needed to be aware that spies wanted to steal both commercial and government secrets.
Loading
'It doesn't all have to be defence and military. A lot of it could be commercial information. It doesn't mean you treat everybody with paranoia or anything like that, but you be discreet. And you work on the basis that if information's confidential, it's confidential for a reason,' he said.
Burke said he understood the people's desire to market themselves to potential employers, but declared that foreign spies should not be able to identify targets by simply Googling.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
7NEWS
42 minutes ago
- 7NEWS
Is Australia becoming a more violent country?
Almost every day, it seems we read or hear reports another family is grieving the murder of a loved one in a street brawl, another business owner is hospitalised after trying to fend off armed robbers, or shoppers simply going about their business are confronted by knife-wielding thugs. The way media and politicians talk, it seems as if we are in the middle of an unprecedented violent crime crisis. But are we? The short answer is: no. Comparing today with the past Although the numbers fluctuate from year to year, Australia is less violent today than in previous years. It is difficult to make direct comparisons over decades, because the way crimes are defined and recorded changes (especially for assault). For crimes like domestic violence, the statistics are extremely hard to compare over time but even so, prevalence appears to have declined (although only about half of all women who experience physical and/or sexual violence from their partners seek advice or support). However, if we consider homicide and robbery (which have been categorised much the same way over time), the numbers have been falling for decades. Yes, knives and bladed weapons have been in the news recently, but this does not mean they are being used more often. Reliable, long-term statistics are not always available but the ones we have show the use of weapons has declined over time. Interestingly, this seems to have nothing to do with the weapons themselves. For instance, armed robbery and unarmed robbery both rise and fall in about the same way, at about the same time. Homicide follows a similar pattern. Not all crimes are reported to police but self-reported statistics show the same trends. Relative to ten years ago, Australians now are less likely to say they have experienced physical or threatened face-to-face assault in the previous 12 months. Places with greater socioeconomic disadvantage typically experience more violence. In Queensland, for instance, Mt Isa has higher violent crime rates than affluent areas of Brisbane. Despite differences between places, there is generally less violence than there used to be. Why is violence declining? Nobody knows quite why violence is decreasing. This is not just happening in Australia but across many developed nations. Suggestions include better social welfare, strong economies, improved education, low unemployment, women's rights and stable governance. Also, new avenues have opened up that carry less risk than violent crime – such as cyberfraud instead of robbing a bank. There is no clear, compelling explanation. Yet when we consider Australia's responses when violence does occur, measures such as bans (for example, on machetes), more police powers and more (or longer) prison sentences have become the fallback. Evidence shows these types of reactions achieve little, but in an environment of endless 'crisis' it is almost impossible to make good decisions. This is made even harder in circumstances where victims and activists push politicians to implement 'feel-good' policies, regardless of how ultimately fruitless those will be. Who are the people being violent? One thing remains the same: violent crime is primarily committed by younger men (who are also likely to be victims). Ethnicity and migration are also recurrent themes. Just as young Italians with switchblades were the focus of moral panic in the 1950s and 60s, migrants from places such as Africa and the Middle East are now held up as a danger. Ethnicity/migration history data is not always recorded in crime statistics, but the information we do have suggests a more complex picture. Factors such as exposure to warfare and civil strife can certainly play a role in people's use of violence. However, unemployment, poverty, poor education and involvement with drugs and/or gangs tend to play a much larger part. Reactions versus reality If society is less violent, why are public reactions to violence seemingly becoming more intense? Incidents that would have received little attention a decade ago now dominate public debate and single incidents – no matter how rare or isolated – are enough to provoke sweeping legislative and policy changes. Violence is political currency. The more the spectre of violence is emphasised and exaggerated, the more power people are willing to give to authorities to do something to fix it. This is also about psychology: the better things get, the more sensitive people tend to be to whatever ills remain and resilience can crumble when something bad does happen. Pandering to this by rushing to make people feel safer – while politically irresistible – has unintended consequences. When another incident occurs, as it always does, people feel even more vulnerable because they were led to believe the problem had been 'fixed'. This creates a never-ending cycle of superficial responses while underlying issues are ignored. We cannot legislate or politicise our way out of violence. The best responses are ones that identify and address actual root causes and look at the circumstances that surround violence – rather than fixating on the violence itself. This means moving away from emotional reactions and taking a clear look at why violence occurs in the first place. Until this happens, any further reductions in violence are more likely to be good luck than good management.
West Australian
5 hours ago
- West Australian
Sussan Ley: Opposition Leader tells Anthony Albanese he needs to ‘walk the walk' on Indigenous issues
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has slammed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's lack of action for Indigenous Australians since the failed Voice to Parliament, saying he has shied away from the issue since the failed referendum. Speaking from Wyndham in the Kimberley on Saturday, Ms Ley said the Prime Minister needed to walk the walk after talking the talk at successive Garma Festivals — one of the largest gatherings for Indigenous Australians in the country. 'It's so disappointing to see this plan that the Prime Minister calls a plan for economic empowerment is failing in these critical areas,' she said. 'Now he had the same announcement at last year's Garma, I believe there was a plan for economic empowerment released. 'This is the fourth year of an Albanese government and we're seeing these critical indicators go backwards, that is not good enough. 'It's not good enough to be there for the photo op, Australians are expecting the follow up.' Ms Ley said key issues facing Indigenous Australians were not being addressed. 'The scale of the challenges in Indigenous Australia are much bigger than the scale of the response that I have heard from Prime Minister Albanese today,' she said. 'We have 19 indicators in Closing the Gap — four of those are going backwards and what really concerns me is that they are indicating a lack of progress, in fact, a retreat in critical areas relating to children and education and youth incarceration.' While Ms Ley attacked Mr Albanese's approach, she elected not to attend the Garma Festival herself, instead sending shadow Attorney-General Julian Leeser and defended her travel to WA. 'This visit to the Kimberley was planned so that soon after the recent Parliamentary sitting, I could come with two of my senior colleagues and listen to the voices of regional Indigenous Australians here in a really important part of Australia,' she said. 'It's vital that we do that, it's what I said I would do when I became leader.' Ms Ley kicked off her tour of WA's north-west on Friday, landing in Kununurra before heading an hour north-west on Saturday morning to Wyndham. Ms Ley said she was looking to reach Indigenous Australians where they were. 'We've seen programs that work, we've seen job initiatives that are doing well, we've also seen things that are failing,' she said. 'We've heard from so many people about what works and what doesn't work and it's important that we look at the detail, that we listen and that we closely examine how we might construct policies in the future to address the sense of disappointment . . . that is here in so many of the communities that we are visiting now.' Ms Ley spent the first two days of her tour in Kununurra and Wyndham, meeting with local Indigenous groups and businesses. Issues ranged from funding challenges being a border town, needing an on-country incarceration system and housing shortages. Not every meeting took as serious a tone however, with Ms Ley proving a popular figure that evening among the akubra-wearing pub patrons, with multiple people asking for selfies with the politician and she attended a Saturday footy game in Kununurra. The trip also comes a week after a public spat blew into the public sphere between State leader Basil Zempilas and WA Federal frontbencher Andrew Hastie over the party's net zero position. Ms Ley said she wasn't concerned. 'I barely looked at those reports,' she told The Sunday Times before her trip. Ms Ley will also visit Broome, meeting with youth services, health programs and Indigenous-led businesses.
9 News
6 hours ago
- 9 News
Detectives re-open double murder cold case after 25 years
Your web browser is no longer supported. To improve your experience update it here It's a cold case that has been brought back into the spotlight. South Australia 's major crime detectives are re-visiting the murder of Rosemary Brown and her daughter Melissa Trussell in 2000. Tonight, a former police diver exclusively told 9News of his role in the investigation, while supporting this fresh search for answers. South Australia's major crime detectives are re-visiting the murder of Rosemary Brown and her daughter Melissa Trussell in 2000. (9News) Peter Menz spent over three decades below the surface, helping solve some of the state's biggest murder cases. But, it's this unsolved one from 25 years ago at Garden Island that he'll never forget. "It was a request from Port Vixen 10, to assist with a body badly decomposed, female," Menz recalled. The retired police diver was among those first on scene and tasked with retrieving the body of Brown from the Mangroves in 2000. The mother and her 15-year-old daughter, Trussell, had been missing for weeks. "We went in there and there was other police officers there as well, forensics and... crime scene, I should say," he said. Former police diver Peter Menz exclusively told 9News of his role in the investigation, while supporting this fresh search for answers. (9News) The retired police diver was among those first on scene and tasked with retrieving the body of Brown from the Mangroves in 2000. (9News) A crime scene was immediately set up, with Menz hoping they'd locate the missing teenager too but she has never been found. "We were there for a while, we had a bit of look around but because it was dark we couldn't do a proper search that night because of the lighting," he recalled. In the past month, major crime detectives have re-visited the cold case and conducted a number of searches around Garden Island. Authorities are hoping to finally find Trussell's remains and those responsible for the murder of the mother and daughter. Authorities are hoping to finally find Trussell's remains and those responsible for the murder of the mother and daughter. (9News) Menz said at the time they carried out a thorough search at Garden Island but 25 years on, technology and tactics have changed and he welcomes the recent searches. "I think it's very good, because we would all like to see closure, for the family especially," he said. He's now waiting, along with many others, for a breakthrough. "Obviously they have got some good information and hopefully this case will be solved." South Australia cold case police national Australia Adelaide crime CONTACT US Auto news: Why Australians are still driving around without insurance.
