Why is cyber espionage one of the top threats to Australia’s national security?
Author Identifier (ORCID)
Mohiuddin Ahmed: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4559-4768
Abstract
The 2024 Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) threat assessment reiterated espionage, among other issues, and according to the Director-General, the threat level for espionage is highest. Now the question remains: why is espionage, or a more sophisticated yet effective variant, cyber espionage, more brutal than a nuclear strike? Cyber espionage poses a direct threat to global security, and it’s evident that traditional cybersecurity measures have limitations. These measures primarily focus on addressing threats to critical infrastructure through penetration testing exercises, but they are not equipped to handle the complexity and scale of cyber espionage. This underscores the need for new and innovative approaches. State-sponsored cyber espionage actors utilize highly sophisticated Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTP) to develop malicious software. This software is carefully crafted to conduct espionage activities that can evade detection by current defenses, emphasizing the severity of the cyber espionage threat. To delve deeper into the cyber espionage ecosystem and devise appropriate countermeasures, it is crucial to highlight the key challenges associated with espionage. In this chapter, we present the four key challenges as the initial steps to focus on the investigations and developing countermeasures on a larger scale. These investigations and countermeasures are of utmost significance in addressing the national security concerns.
Keywords
Borderless crime, critical infrastructure, cyber espionage, national security, ransomware, security intelligence, wargaming
Document Type
Book Chapter
Date of Publication
1-1-2026
Volume
1242
Publication Title
Studies in Computational Intelligence
Publisher
Springer
School
School of Science
Copyright
subscription content
First Page
1
Last Page
9
Comments
Saeed, M., Ahmed, M., & Barkat Ullah, A. S. S. M. (2026). Why is cyber espionage one of the top threats to Australia’s national security? In M. Ahmed & S. D. Bachmann (Eds.), Cyber espionage and national security challenges (pp. 1-9). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-09423-0_1