By Richard Stone
The dividing line between legitimate intelligence-gathering and the accumulation of vast troves of personal data accessed through questionable means has always been blurred. The problem now, however, is set to escalate, if recently announced plans are ever implemented: western intelligence services, and their associates, will be able to operate in a totally non-regulated and unaccountable manner. Further considerations also arise about spurious tax-payer funded research programs designed, specifically, for other purposes and other agendas.
A seemingly innocent looking article in the Australian business press in November has thrown light upon defence and security planning to ‘build gigantic data centres to run artificial-intelligence models among the stars’. (1) Those concerned are, presumably, planning satellite-systems specifically for the purpose. The use of AI is generally considered to also provide spooks with increased opportunities for data-mining and profiling of whole populations.
Declassified documents from the previous Cold War reveal a great deal about the power of the state to profile a general population. There is no reason to think same procedures are now taking place with the present Cold War. (2)
Australia, however, has some limited regulations to prevent cyber-crime, and also some accountability through freedom of information legislation. While problems, nevertheless, arise, the regulations provide some restrictions to most data-mining practices, which can be very unpleasant, particularly when they occur under the guise of respectable correspondence with links which can be used to let unwanted intruders into computerised systems. Once they are in it is often difficult to get them to leave. Recent publicity about cyber-crime in Australia, for example, has noted the following problems have become increasingly commonplace: email compromise, ransom-ware extortion, remote access scams, phishing, cyber-enabled investment scams, identity theft and sextortion. (3)
Revelations that AI platforms can be hacked within minutes have provided a highly probable nightmare scenario, more likely sooner rather than later. (4)
Attention was drawn to some possible scenarios by a top cyber-security former advisor to the US National Security Agency recently, when he acknowledged areas of concern included ‘privileged communications with a lawyer or human resources regarding an employee matter or even a customer’. (5) Our civil liberties hang by a thread.
Revelations that Australian Super funds have already been hacked into have presented warning signals to the general public; while law enforcement agencies have issued official press releases, the matter has been given little publicity. (6)
The Australian cyber-crime legislation and the restrictions it presents, however, have been duly noted by the cyber-spooks; the article about data-centres in outer space, for example noted, ‘there aren’t those pesky regulations that executives like to complain about … to meet data-centre needs’. (7) The law means nothing to such people. Making fast buck is all that really matters. When their research is subsidised with government support they really do get enthusiastic. As they have: the Military-Industrial complex is a fact of life.
The article, furthermore, then noted the new Project Suncatcher, ‘to scale machine learning in space. It plans to launch two satellites by early 2027 to test its hardware in orbit’. (8) Planning would appear well under-way to implement data-centres in outer space within a few years.
The procedure for circumventing civil liberties through advanced telecommunications is not, however, anything new. In fact, the US-led Echelon system became operational decades ago. While based in the NSA, at Forte Meade in Maryland, it effectively uses networks of computers which intercept telecommunications and relay the information to another Five Eyes partner to avoid detection and unwanted publicity.
The NSA, for example, can monitor all Australian telecommunications without a warrant to authorise data-mining and intelligence-gathering; Australians might think they are protected by Canberra, in reality, however, they have no control over US facilities and their satellite systems, even though they are routed through Pine Gap in Central Australia. (9)
Studies of the Echelon system have noted it has also ‘created an awesome spying capacity for the USA, allowing it to monitor continuously most of the world’s communications targeting civilian as well as military traffic’. (10) Based on data-collection activated by trigger words, vast troves of personal information are systematically gathered for analysis and profiling. Those pursuing the data-collection remain totally unaccountable.
The system has been systematically updated and is now beginning to experiment with AI.
And there is no jurisdiction; outer space is out-of-bounds for law enforcement agencies.
Just how much of the massive allocation of official funding for space research, from Australian tax-payers money, has been directed toward these projects designed specifically to systematically enhance class and state power remains a question of which there have been no answers. Nor are any expected. The proportion of the funding allocations specifically directed toward US defence and security considerations, likewise, will of course, be subject to official diplomatic silence. They have too much to hide from making open statements.
The ‘accidents’ and ‘mistakes’ which are highly likely have serious implications for ordinary Australian people are just waiting to happen. Many already occur through use of older technology and a multitude of problems pursued by those holding questionable agendas in decision-making positions. The recruitment to elite government departments is hardly representative of the population at large; it is filled largely by elite patronage systems to serve elites and those in control, who do not like opposition or those who ask questions and present a challenge. Government departments usually display a fortress mentality.
Peering through the seemingly opaque fortress mentality is difficult, but recent statements from Canberra have offered an indication that preparations are well under-way for the data-centres in outer space. A present review of the ADF, for example, has revealed senior commanders possessing ‘complex new roles, including space and cyber positions’. (11)
The implications of those ‘complex new roles’ include: Ever wondered, for example, about that job you were well qualified to hold which never materialised, or those strange coincidences of mistaken identity, or continually being accused to fictitious matters, often totally ridiculous although seemingly taken very seriously by supervisors and managers. They, and numerous other everyday examples, can be sensibly taken as symptomatic of identity theft and incorrect profiling techniques.
The problems are now set to escalate, silently and without opposition, in outer space. The shadowy Urban-Spacemen/Women in control, however, will remain feet firmly on the ground after out-sourcing any liability into orbit: We need an independent foreign policy!
1. Tech moguls want to build data centres on the moon, The Australian, 18 November 2025.
2. See: The Army Foreign Intelligence Assistance Program, Army Regulation 381-20, declassified 15 November 1993, and, Army’s Project X had wider audience, The Washington Post, 6 March 1997, and, The CIA cleanses itself, The New York Times, 4 March 1997.
3. ‘Most cyber-crime tracking ineffective’, The Australian, 18 November 2025.
4. See: AI platforms ‘hacked within minutes’, The Australian, 2 December 2025.
5. Ibid.
6. See: Super funds vulnerable as thieves still at large after $500k heist,The Australian, 3 December 2025.
7. Tech moguls, Australian, op.cit., 18 November 2025.
8. Ibid.
9. Echelon, Espionage, Spies and Secrets, Richard M. Bennett, (London, 2002), pp. 89-93, and, The Falcon and the Snowman, Robert Lindsay, (London, 1980).
10. Ibid., Echelon, Espionage, Spies and Secrets.
11. US subs based here ‘could carry nukes’, The Australian, 4 December 2025.
