Australia has busted a "hive" of spies which has been operating in the country for years, its intelligence chief says.
Mike Burgess did not identify any countries behind the network, but said the undercover operatives appeared to be "highly trained".
The group would study and "potentially seduce" targets including judges, journalists and veterans, he claimed.
It shows the threat posed by foreign spies is at an all-time high, he added.
While delivering his annual threat assessment in Canberra, the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation (Asio) chief outlined a "concerted campaign" to infiltrate the Australian media to shape reporting and gain information on sources.
A "lackey" planned to offer journalists all-expenses-paid study tours of a foreign country, he said, where spies with the "home-ground advantage" would seek to gain information to leverage. บาคาร่า99 th