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ASIO Names IRGC Links to 2024 Arsons and Warns Threat Level Understates Risk

The spy chief says the security environment has degraded and is pushing for a review of how Australia rates and prepares for politically motivated violence.

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MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - DECEMBER 06: Members of the local Jewish community look at the damage of the arson attack at the Adass Israel Synagogue on December 06, 2024 in Melbourne, Australia. An arson attack on the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne forced congregants to flee as flames engulfed the building early on Friday morning. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemned the incident as an antisemitic act, emphasizing that such violence at a place of worship is unacceptable in Australia. (Photo by Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images)
Mike Burgess, Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) Director-General of Security, delivers the 2025 Lowy Lecture in Sydney, Australia, November 4, 2025. REUTERS/Hollie Adams

Overview

  • On June 24 ASIO director‑general Mike Burgess disclosed that investigators have tied two 2024 firebombings of Jewish sites in Sydney and Melbourne to people working with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and that one suspected organiser is now jailed in Iraq.
  • Burgess warned the official terrorism rating of “probable” does not capture a multiplying mix of threats and has begun discussions to overhaul the threat‑level system to better reflect state‑directed violence, online radicalisation and other risks.
  • ASIO said nation‑state hackers had compromised the network of an Australian critical infrastructure provider, acquired user credentials and were mapping the system to prepare for sabotage, and that the agency worked with the company and partners to remediate the breach.
  • Foreign intelligence services have tried to recruit Australians with security clearances for AUKUS material, and ASIO disrupted an operation where a spy posing as a consultant paid an official for reports then sought submarine program secrets.
  • The agency reported at least five regimes are coercing or pressuring Australians to return home, noted it has foiled 31 major terrorism plots since 2014, and defended counter‑terror resourcing while testifying to a royal commission examining recent failures.