Melbourne | November 11, 2025 | In a speech that rippled through Australia’s financial and political circles, Mike Burgess, Director-General of the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO), declared that the country has crossed into a new era of cyber peril.
“I have previously said we’re getting closer to the threshold for high-impact sabotage,” Burgess told an audience of regulators, investors, and executives at the Australian Securities and Investments Commission forum in Melbourne. “Well, I regret to inform you we’re there now.”
Burgess described a rapidly deteriorating security landscape, where authoritarian regimes have become “more aggressive, more reckless, more dangerous,” and increasingly willing to disrupt or destroy civilian infrastructure. His remarks echoed a growing unease within the Five Eyes intelligence alliance—Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and New Zealand—over China’s expanding cyber operations.
The Typhoons: China’s Digital Stormfront
At the center of Burgess’s warning were two state-backed Chinese hacking groups: Salt Typhoon and Volt Typhoon. According to ASIO’s intelligence, both units operate under the direction of Chinese government agencies and the People’s Liberation Army, conducting stealth intrusions into foreign systems.
Salt Typhoon, Burgess said, has previously infiltrated U.S. telecommunications networks as part of a broad espionage campaign and “has been probing our telecommunication networks here in Australia too.” Volt Typhoon, by contrast, is believed to have a more disruptive mandate, “compromising U.S. critical infrastructure to pre-position for potential sabotage.”
These operations—quiet, patient, and deeply embedded—suggest a long-term strategy to gain control over key systems that could be disabled during geopolitical crises. “Once access is gained,” Burgess warned, “what happens next is a matter of intent, not capability.”
When Critical Systems Go Dark
Burgess illustrated the scale of the threat with a reminder close to home. Earlier this year, a nationwide Optus outage paralyzed emergency communications for 14 hours. During that time, four people died after being unable to reach help.
“That’s one phone network not working for less than one day,” he said. “Imagine the implications if a nation-state took down all the networks. Or turned off the power during a heatwave. Or polluted our drinking water. Or crippled our financial system.”
While the outage was not linked to any foreign interference, it offered a chilling preview of what deliberate sabotage could achieve. Australia’s critical infrastructure—spanning utilities, healthcare, and transportation—relies on interdependent digital systems, many of which were designed long before cyberwarfare became a mainstream concern.
Beijing Pushes Back, but Tensions Mount
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs dismissed Burgess’s allegations as “false narratives” meant to “deliberately provoke confrontation.” A spokesperson in Beijing accused Canberra of “hyping up the China threat theory” to align with U.S. strategic interests.
But Burgess appeared unfazed. Speaking days earlier in Sydney, he said Chinese officials “complain about me every time I speak publicly about China—it won’t stop my resolve.”
His defiance underscores the difficult balance Australia faces: maintaining economic ties with its largest trading partner while navigating intensifying cyber hostilities. For now, Burgess’s warning signals that Australia views the digital frontier not merely as an espionage battlefield but as a potential arena of real-world sabotage.
As Burgess put it, the difference between peace and crisis in cyberspace “is no longer about what they can do—but whether they choose to do it.”
