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The Australian Institute of Professional Intelligence Officers extends its congratulations to the latest recipient of the QCS Intelligence Course Student of Merit Award – Alain Diamond.

AIPIO have been a proud sponsor of this award since 2005.

One of the many challenges that continues to confront today’s intelligence analyst is how to tip the scales; increase time performing actual analysis whilst reducing the effort involved in data collection and collation.

The core functionality of Sintelix has long provided unparalleled document entity extraction, web and OSINT collection, inbuilt analysis tools, and compatibility with IBM i2 Analyst’s Notebook in an enterprise solution.

This capability is now available in new affordable plans for individuals and small groups that can help you meet this challenge, both online and on premise.

To commemorate AIPIO’s 30th Anniversary, a special edition, limited run of challenge coin has been created.

Get yours today before they are sold out!

The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) has been given a 10-year funding boost as part of the 2021 federal Budget.

The AU$1.3 billion boost, the Budget documents [PDF] say, is to be invested into building ASIO’s ability to protect Australia and Australians from threats to security.

Specifically, the cash will go towards enhancing Australia’s national security capabilities.

“This will support ASIO’s technological capabilities, enhancing its ability to address threats to Australia’s national security,” the government said.

Meanwhile, a further AU$51.8 million is being provided to support the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission’s (ACIC) role in combatting “transnational, serious, and organised crime”

“This measure also includes funding to support enhanced collaboration and information sharing through the ongoing integration of Australian law enforcement agencies into the National Criminal Intelligence System,” it said.

The poisoning of a Russian former double agent, Sergei V. Skripal, and his daughter with a rare nerve agent in England has raised new concerns in NATO capitals about Russia’s willingness to escalate intelligence operations beyond established norms.

The British and U.S. governments have blamed Russia for the attack, which follows a series of unexplained deaths of Russians in the United Kingdom in recent years. For long time CIA veteran Jack Devine, it appears that some of the unwritten conventions of spy-craft with Russia no longer apply.

“Russia today seems unconstrained by any norms,” says Devine in a written interview, citing assassination campaigns, meddling in foreign elections, and bombing civilians in Syria.

A recent instalment of the CIA’s social media series, “Humans of CIA,” depicted a young (to me, at least) Latina telling her story as she walked the sacred halls of Langley. It is part of the Agency’s effort to share real stories and show the many faces, perspectives and experiences of today’s intelligence officers. Their aim is to connect to America, and if they’re lucky, attract new talent.

Well, you would have thought the free world had come to an end.

And not because trolls on Twitter had lots of inane comments about the officer herself or the sad decline of the Agency because it aspired to be an inclusive, diverse organization. (Without trolls and inane comments, there would be no Twitter.)

What was shocking — more exhausting than shocking, really — was the number of notable leaders who decided to weigh in with similar commentary.

Epidemiological models have been a source of continual controversy from the start of the pandemic, often blamed for fearmongering and inaccuracy. How well have they done?

Perhaps the most famous piece of modelling came from Neil Ferguson’s team at Imperial College London in March 2020, credited with provoking the full national lockdown. Unfortunately, there are repeated claims they estimated 510,000 deaths in Great Britain over two years, but that was a projection under the implausible scenario that nothing was done about the virus.

Their model was, if anything, rather optimistic. Even short of a full lockdown, they projected maximum deaths in Great Britain of fewer than 50,000 and the actual total has been far higher.

The Australian government has released a big-spending economic plan for the next fiscal year that includes hefty investments in defence and national security as relations with China worsen

The Australian government released a big-spending economic plan for the next fiscal year on Tuesday that includes hefty investments in defence and national security as relations with China worsen.

The government plans to spend 270 billion Australian dollars ($212 billion) over the next decade on upgrading defence capabilities to “promote an open and peaceful Indo-Pacific,” Treasury Department documents say.

Did you know you can purchase past event recordings through the AIPIO website?

Events such as:

• AIPIO Round Table Series 1, 2021
• AIPIO Round Table 2 – Technologically enabling the Intelligence workforce
• AIPIO National Seminar

Visit our Online Shop to browse our content library and make sure you never miss out on important information and insights.

An exhilarating spy thriller about two women CIA agents who become intertwined around a threat to the Russia Division–one that’s coming from inside the agency.

Lyndsey Duncan worries her career with the CIA might be over. After lines are crossed with another intelligence agent during her most recent assignment, she is sent home to Washington on administrative leave.

Philip Agee’s story is the stuff of a John le Carr novel; perilous and thrilling adventures around the globe. He joined the CIA as a young idealist, becoming an operations officer in hopes of seeing the world and safeguarding his country. He was the consummate intelligence insider, thoroughly entrenched in the shadow world. But in 1975, he became the first person to publicly betray the CIA; a pariah whose like was not seen again until Edward Snowden. For almost forty years in exile, he was a thorn in the side of his country.

The Addressing Violent Extremism and Radicalisation to Terrorism (AVERT) Research Network is a multidisciplinary research initiative administered by Deakin University but involving a wide range of research experts from both Deakin and other Australian and international universities.

It brings together an experienced group of highly engaged and critically informed social science, humanities and multidisciplinary research academics together with community and government partners who believe in conducting meaningful and robust research for the public good.

As an Australian-based research network, we engage globally with research and practitioner colleagues, experts and institutions, while remaining strongly grounded in local contexts and knowledge relevant for Australian community and policy landscapes.

Like organisations everywhere, ASIO was affected by COVID-19.

I take this opportunity to acknowledge the essential services that have been working so hard to keep Australians safe during the pandemic. The doctors, nurses and other health professionals and frontline workers richly deserve our admiration and thanks, as do the brilliant scientists who have led the global research effort.

Of course, ASIO also operates on a frontline. And it’s fair to say that threats to our safety and security didn’t go away with the onset of COVID. In many areas, they evolved; in some they intensified.

At ASIO, we needed to quickly adapt to our new operating environment to ensure our work could continue.

While I can’t go into too many details about how we adapted to the security challenges posed by the pandemic, I can say that it didn’t involve much working from home!

Despite the challenges we all faced, ASIO maintained our hold on high-priority targets, kept up with a threat landscape that was shaped by the pandemic, and reduced harm—we protected Australia and Australians from threats to their security.

And the threats continued.

Every four years, at the start of a new administration, American intelligence agencies put out “Global Trends,” a weighty assessment of where the world seems headed over the next two decades. In 2008, for example, the report warned about the potential emergence of a pandemic originating in East Asia and spreading rapidly around the world.

The latest report, Global Trends 2040, released last week by the National Intelligence Council, finds that the pandemic has proved to be “the most significant, singular global disruption since World War II,” with medical, political and security implications that will reverberate for years. That’s not sturm und drang. It’s the prologue to a far darker picture of what lies ahead.

Money justice—defined as money offered and paid to victims in the aftermath of wrongs—permeates society and everyday life. Current mechanisms of money justice are civil justice awards or out-of-court settlements for personal or cultural injury; redress programs or schemes for mass atrocities, political repression, historical injustice, and institutional abuse; and payments for war-related wrongs, terrorism, violent common crime, and contaminated blood products, among many others.

In this article, we elucidate the concept of money justice, sketch the relationship of revenge and recompense in human history, distil relevant research, and put forward the money justice matrix, which provides a systematic way to analyse money payments (or lack of payments) in varied contexts of victimisation and with different justice mechanisms.

This report presents information collected from the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) 2016 Personal Safety Survey (PSS) and supplementary data drawn from a number of other ABS data sources about experiences, characteristics and outcomes of violence, cohabiting partner violence and emotional abuse, sexual harassment and stalking for persons living with disability.

When Tasmanian police were searching for an alleged murderer in bushland in the state’s north, it was a drone that tracked the suspect down.

Before the man’s arrest, Tasmania Police described him as a skilled bushman, adept in the wild, and possibly having camouflage paint on his face and armed with a knife.

Tasmania Police said “significant” resources were used in the January search, including specialist and uniform personnel, sniffer dogs, thermal imaging and a chopper.

Professor Blaxland, a veteran of the Australian Army, begins by explaining how he transitioned into a career in academia, and reflects on his latest work.

He notes the growing interest in international security education among young Australians, and the value of increased geopolitical awareness in preparing the nation for future challenges.

The Army veteran then discusses current and emerging threats to Australia’s peace and security, particularly following the ramp up in grey-zone aggression from China.

Professor Blaxland goes on to question whether the ADF is adequately equipped to respond to new and emerging threats, given the changing nature of warfare.

The ANU professor concludes by proposing short and long-term recommendations aimed at advancing Australia’s place in the world and establishing an inter-generational security framework.