The leader for Australia’s spy agency begged his people in national security to not advertise their security clearance status – especially on social media sites like LinkedIn. He noted that they are “facing an unprecedented challenge from espionage and foreign interference”. Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) Mike Burgess also told Australians in a speech this week to take cybersecurity more seriously.

Burgess said, “For some time I’ve been warning that foreign spies are targeting Australians on social media. To find out if the message is getting through, I asked my team to quickly scan the best known professional networking sites. They identified nearly 16,000 Australians publicly declaring they have a security clearance, and one thousand more revealing they worked in the intelligence community.”

Burgess calls using LinkedIn to advertise your clearance to potential employers as reckless and puts a target on your profile. Burgess also covered everything from insider threat to better passwords – anything to keep foreign adversaries from gaining easy access. It’s a good reminder for American clearance holders. If others in our alliances are fighting these issues, you can be certain the U.S. is as well. Best bet is to keep your profile in a secure community when you’re looking for cleared work.