New Counter Terrorism Online Centre to assist ASIO in tackling online violent extremism and terrorism
A new national centre dedicated to detecting and disrupting the threat of online violent extremism and terrorism begins operations on Friday after $74 million was allocated for the initiative in the May budget.
A new national centre dedicated to detecting and disrupting the threat of online violent extremism and terrorism formally begins operations on Friday after $74 million was allocated for the initiative in the May budget.
The Counter Terrorism Online Centre (CTOC) will assist ASIO and Australian Federal Police to identify, target and disrupt credible threats, and will also provide an early warning system for the nation’s joint counter terrorism teams.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke, who will officially open the new centre in Sydney on Friday, has warned: “more young Australians are being radicalised online, and it happens very quickly”.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.“The CTOC provides – for the first time – a single point of coordination for online threats. A converged threat environment needs a converged response, the CTOC brings together the expertise of the AFP and ASIO to keep Australians safe.”
“The capability we’ve always had to monitor extremists in the meeting room now extends to the chat room,” the Minister said in a statement.
“The CTOC will go where the threat is, regardless of ideology, online location, or actors. Their work will complement efforts of state and territory police to make sure the right action is being taken to identify and disrupt threats.”
ASIO Director General Mike Burgess warned that because radicalisation was increasingly occurring online, and extremists were increasingly using encrypted chat groups, security agencies had to be online too.
“Extremists are often security conscious and suspicious of outsiders. People who self-radicalise online often show few, if any real-world indicators they are mobilising to violence,” Mr Burgess said.
“Online operations are often the only way we can identify and engage with these individuals to understand their intent, capability, identity and targets.
Over the next two years the government says CTOC will work with national and international partners on their online covert priorities to “limit duplication of effort and maximise coverage of groups of harm”.
The CTOC is also expected to harness advanced language models and artificial intelligence tools alongside covert operatives to “enhance threat detection capability, including indicators of mobilisation to violence”.
AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett warned Australia was now facing “terrorism 2.0”, where “not all the lessons learned over the past 20 years apply today because of the rapid shift in the online threat environment”.
“Individuals, particularly youth, can be radicalised extremely quickly, and in the past investigators have witnessed kids being self-radicalised within the same time it takes to watch a test cricket match,” she warned.
“Law enforcement is dealing with a grievance generation, who are angry and feel powerless, but are willing to show their power by exerting acts of violence, consuming violent extremist material or joining sadistic online groups.”
