Australia’s chief domestic intelligence head has cautioned that hackers linked to the Chinese state and military are escalating attempts to infiltrate the nation’s vital infrastructure, raising the likelihood of what he described as high-impact cyber sabotage in the years ahead. Mike Burgess, Director-General of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), told a business audience in Melbourne that Australia was facing unprecedented espionage pressures, accompanied by a strategic push by a major authoritarian power to test and penetrate essential systems. Though he avoided naming the country directly, he made it clear that China was responsible for repeated attempts to infiltrate sensitive sectors, targeting water supply, transportation, telecommunications, and energy networks in Australia and in allied nations.
According to Burgess, authoritarian governments are becoming increasingly prepared to use cyber tools not just for espionage, but also for deliberate disruption and destruction. He noted that two China-based hacking units, Salt Typhoon and Volt Typhoon, have been identified as key actors behind these efforts. Both groups have previously attacked telecommunications companies in the United States and are believed to be operating under the direction of Chinese intelligence agencies and the country’s military. Burgess said assessments showed Salt Typhoon primarily focuses on intelligence gathering, with the group breaking into American telecom systems and attempting similar intrusions into Australian networks. Volt Typhoon, he said, is more deeply involved in operations intended to enable disruptive attacks, having compromised critical networks in the US in ways that could support sabotage in the event of future geopolitical tensions. ASIO has also detected attempts by the same actors to probe Australian critical infrastructure for weaknesses.
The intelligence chief warned that such activities are part of a broader strategic trend in which hostile states are prepared to strike vital systems to obstruct decision-making, damage economies, weaken military capability and spread public unrest. He argued that Australians have yet to fully grasp how destructive such operations could be. Even brief disruptions in domestic telecom services, incidents unrelated to foreign interference, have already shown how quickly widespread inconvenience and uncertainty can spread. Burgess noted that these short outages should be considered a small preview of the far-reaching consequences if a sophisticated state actor deliberately disabled major networks, shut down electricity during extreme weather, tainted water supplies, or paralysed financial systems.
He added that espionage operations are also expanding in scope. Foreign agencies are increasingly targeting private-sector projects, corporate negotiations, and investment planning to give overseas companies a competitive edge. In addition, they have intensified efforts to steal large volumes of customer data in ways comparable to criminal cyber groups. ASIO’s latest calculations show the financial toll of espionage on Australia has reached at least A$12.5 billion (US$8.2 billion; £6.2 billion) in the 2023–24 period alone. Around A$2 billion worth of trade secrets and intellectual property were taken from Australian companies in a single year, a trend Burgess described as deeply damaging to national competitiveness.
He characterised the capabilities of the responsible hacking groups as highly advanced. Their operations involve methodical scanning of systems, probing for weaknesses, and carefully assessing network defences. Once inside a network, they map the internal environment in detail and work to maintain long-term, undetected access, ensuring they can launch sabotage attacks whenever it suits their strategic aims. Burgess urged Australian businesses and institutions to strengthen cybersecurity practices, emphasising that hostile state-backed hackers are now equipped with both the skill and the intent to cause widespread disruption across essential services. Their methods, he warned, reflect a determination to exploit vulnerabilities and hold critical infrastructure at risk.
