A plot by a visiting academic recruited by Chinese intelligence to infiltrate an Australian research institution has been foiled.
ASIO head Mike Burgess said his organisation "detected and disrupted a plot to infiltrate a prestigious Australian institution" in September.
"The plot involved a visiting professor, a genuine academic who had also been recruited by Chinese intelligence," the director-general told the first public Five Eyes security partnership forum in the United States.
"Their spymaster had given them money and a shopping list of intelligence requirements and sent them to Australia."
The academic's PhD research assignment was in line with the intelligence requirements, Mr Burgess said.
The spy chief was one of the topics being researched.
"Working with the research institution, ASIO intervened and removed that academic from the country before that harm could be done," Mr Burgess said, adding similar moves were happening every day in Australia and the US.
In ASIO's annual report, the director-general said foreign spies were "aggressively stealing secrets" about defence capabilities, political parties, foreign policy, critical infrastructure, space technologies, academic research, medical advances, key export industries and personal information.
It has led to the organisation adopting "a more aggressive counter-espionage and foreign interference posture" in the past year.
"We increased our investigations, expanded our capabilities, sharpened our responses and hardened Australia’s security environment," Mr Burgess wrote in the report.
The prosecution of people charged with foreign interference offences "will have a chilling effect on hostile foreign intelligence services", the organisation said.
Seven major espionage and foreign interference disruptions were conducted in 2023, compared to 12 last year.
