Espionage is not some new-age practice.
Diplomatic workers, military attachés, and trade delegations are all routinely acquiring publically available information. They obtain information through open sources such as the media, conferences, diplomatic events, and trade shows, as well as direct contact with representatives from the host government. This allows them to keep tabs on political, economic, and military developments in their host country while also providing information to their own governments. As a result, foreign officials assist their governments in shaping international, commercial, and military policy. This type of effort does not jeopardise our national security. In fact, it frequently assists us in forming positive relationships with other countries.
The goal of espionage is to get non-public information using covert techniques. First and foremost, classified material is kept secret because its exposure could jeopardise national security, jeopardise the country’s economic well-being, or hurt international relations. Its sensitivity necessitates our protection, but it also makes it appealing to spies.
Serious harm can be done if this information is obtained by individuals who have no permission to access it. Other countries, for example, are looking for technical knowledge about weapons systems in order to identify strategies to counteract our military advantages. Furthermore, the theft of sensitive technologies could allow foreign corporations to imitate them, posing a threat to national security as well as job security.
Dangerous Liaisons- Honey Trapping
A wide-ranging Chinese operation to blackmail Western businesses over sexual ties was described by the renowned British security service. The document report expressly states that Chinese intelligence agencies are attempting to build “long-term connections” and have been known to “exploit vulnerabilities such as sexual relationships… to pressurise individuals to cooperate with them,” as the London Times reported in 2009.
Spymasters of all kinds have been training their spies to utilise the amorous arts to gather hidden information for millennia. The “honey trap” is the trade name for this sort of surveillance. And it turns out that both men and women are equally capable of creating one — and equally prone to falling into it. As bait, spies utilise sex, intelligence, and the thrill of living a double life. Against a well-set honey trap, cunning, training, character, and patriotism are frequently ineffective.
Spymasters, Romeo Spies and Elaborate Honey Traps
Markus Wolf, the legendary East German spymaster, perhaps devised the biggest honey trap in intelligence history. Wolf realised in the early 1950s that, as a result of the large number of marriageable German men killed in World War II and the increasing number of German women pursuing careers, the higher echelons of the German government, commerce, and industry were now stocked with lonely single women, ripe — in his opinion — for the temptations of a honey trap.
Wolf established a special division of the Stasi, East Germany’s security organisation, and filled it with his most attractive and intelligent officers. They were dubbed “Romeo spies” by him. Their mission was to infiltrate West Germany, find influential, unmarried women, woo them, and get all of their secrets from them. The Stasi infiltrated most levels of West German government and industry thanks to the Romeo spies and their honey traps. At one point, the East Germans even had a spy inside NATO who could provide information on the West’s nuclear weapons deployment. Another utilised her contacts to work as a secretary in the office of Helmut Schmidt, the West German chancellor.
Honey Trap Spies lurking on Dating Apps Today
In 2019, India discovered 150 Pakistani social media personas that were meant to dupe Indian army officers into divulging state secrets. India instructed soldiers to deactivate Facebook, Instagram, Tinder, and hundreds of other apps from phones because the problem was so serious. A woman would normally begin the seduction by ‘liking’ a soldier’s social media post and asking for more photographs of firearms and aircraft. The conversation would then shift to direct texting, with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence enticingly requesting defence secrets.
Foreign Interference Plot on an unspecified Australian Election Revealed
Tinder and other dating apps are being used by foreign spies to recruit Australians with access to key government information currently. While delivering his yearly threat assessment, ASIO commander Mike Burgess revealed the alarming disclosure, warning that identifying anti-vaccine campaigners who could turn violent was proving tough.
Mr Burgess confirmed espionage and foreign interference has now “supplanted” terrorism as the “principal security concern” in a wide-ranging address to an audience of military chiefs, security bosses, and politicians inside ASIO’s Canberra headquarters, declaring the recent AUKUS nuclear partnership an obvious target for international agents.
Thousands of Australians with access to confidential material are thought to have been targeted by foreign intelligence services through social media profiles over the last two years. These assassins know how to use the internet to find new recruits. On messaging systems like WhatsApp, there has been an increase in dubious approaches. As part of its attempt to entice Australians with access to state secrets, overseas intelligence operatives are being tracked by ASIO on popular dating apps. Foreign intelligence services can easily target personnel of interest by going online, according to the Director-General of Security.