Chinese spying fears revived by universities security probe
South China Morning Post.
Australia’s Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security has been receiving submissions from security agencies, universities, academics and other stakeholders as part of an ongoing probe into foreign interference in higher education.
The inquiry, which is due to report its findings in July, has highlighted tensions between national security considerations and academic freedom within Australia’s tertiary education sector, which relies heavily on exchanges with China. In its submission to the inquiry, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation said it was aware of cyber-attacks aimed at acquiring intellectual property and of academics being threatened and intimidated by actors looking to pass on their sensitive research to a foreign country.
Australia s uncomfortable truth about home grown terror starts small
8 Feb, 2021 04:00 PM
5 minutes to read
Blair Cottrell, a neo-Nazi Australian who terrorist Brenton Tarrant had idolised. Photo / Getty Images
news.com.au
By: Rohan Smith
At a fruit and vegetable market in Melbourne s southeast, a pony-tailed man brazenly strolled through the stalls wearing an armband featuring the unmistakable hate symbol of Nazi Germany – the swastika.
The man, whose image has been shared with Victoria Police, has not been tracked down.
There is a temptation to assume the Hitler-sympathiser is a fringe-dweller out to make a scene and little else. He most likely is.
Home Affairs joins Defence to restrict TikTok on work phones
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Employees at the Department of Home Affairs have been restricted from using the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok on their work phones, following a similar move at the Defence Department.
A security risk assessment by the Department of Home Affairs last January concluded that TikTok should not be used on department-issued corporate mobile phones.
The Department of Home Affairs reviewed use of TikTok on work phones in 2020.
AP
A Defence Department spokeswoman told
The Australian Financial Review that “the TikTok application is currently not able to be installed on Defence devices, and is not currently approved for use”, a policy which was reported on last year.
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While the threat of violence inspired by Islamic extremism remained the domestic security agency’s greatest concern, ASIO last year told this masthead extreme right-wing groups and individuals represented “a serious, increasing and evolving threat to security”.
“The extreme and violent right wing has been in ASIO’s sights for many decades and we have maintained continuous and dedicated resources to this area,” an ASIO spokesperson said in August. “Unfortunately, extreme right-wing groups are more organised, sophisticated and security conscious than before.”
Labor later on Thursday moved a Senate motion seeking to condemn far-right extremism which included criticism of Liberal MP Craig Kelly and Nationals MP George Christensen for claiming voter fraud in the US election.
WARNING - STRONG LANGUAGE Members of the far right neo-Nazi group that descended on a Victorian beauty spot last week burning crosses and chanting racist slogans have whinged that they are the ones that have suffered in a series of perplexing social media posts. The self-proclaimed racist white men of the National Socialist Network, based in Melbourne, also bragged about how police were unable to prevent their jaunt to the Grampians region of western Victoria. So far right is the group, it has slammed the notorious US Proud Boys gang as soft and praised the brave men who stormed the US Capitol building.