Australia spy chief warns of layered threats from hackers and extremists

Burgess said ASIO had foiled 31 major terrorism plots since 2014. Australia’s security environment has become more dangerous and more layered, with autocratic regimes, hackers and antisemitic extremists now reinforcing one another. In Canberra, Australian Security Intelligence Organisation director-general Mike Burgess said the old counterterrorism lens no longer captured the scale of the pressure on the country’s intelligence, police and political institutions.

He also said counter-terrorism staffing at ASIO had doubled over the past 10 years. Australia recorded 11 terrorist attacks on Australian soil and 21 significant plots disrupted between 2014 and 2022, according to ASIO’s historical timeline, while the National Terrorism Threat Level remains set at probable. Burgess said that framework was not designed for a world in which multiple threat categories can hit at once, and he said changes are being considered.

The year before the Bondi terror attack on December 14, 2025, which killed 15 people, included online radicalization, state-sponsored cyberattacks, arson targeting Jewish businesses and a mass shooting in Sydney. The Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion was established on January 9, 2026 to examine that attack, and its interim report was tabled on April 30, 2026 with 14 recommendations.

Senior defence officers, federal police and politicians heard Burgess speak, and he used a video montage of recent unrest to make the case that social cohesion itself has become part of the threat picture. The footage included pro-Palestinian protests, clashes with police, white nationalists, neo-Nazis and the aftermath of the Bondi attack.

He also said Iran was behind attacks on Jewish targets in Sydney and Melbourne, including the December 2024 arson at Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne. Burgess warned that an Iran-linked group active in Europe could carry out further attacks in Australia, or even an assassination.