Australia’s cyber threat report warns of AI-enabled attacks

The report examines Australia’s cyber threat environment, the effects of rapidly advancing AI and ways Australians can protect themselves.[2] The ASD says malicious cyber actors are using AI to operate with greater scale, speed and sophistication.[1] It also says AI is making cyberattacks, scams and phishing attempts more efficient, effective and convincing.[1] ASD Director-General Abigail Bradshaw said frontier AI models had redefined the threat facing Australia, and that each capability increase is likely to bring more disruption.[3] The ASD called the release of frontier AI the defining event of the past year, citing models such as Anthropic’s Mythos.[3]

During the 2025–26 financial year, the ASD’s ACSC received more than 82,000 cybercrime reports, an average of one every six minutes.[1] The notification total was almost 80% higher than in the previous year.[1] Separately, the ASD responded to 139 ransomware incidents.[4] These figures describe different kinds of activity, so they should not be treated as interchangeable measures of the same workload.[1][4]

The ASD said Amadey malware steals personal data or login details and sends them to criminal groups for sale on the dark web.[3] It found Amadey hidden in a free, illegitimate version of Photoshop, and said the network had access to 180,000 computers worldwide, including computers in Australia.[3] In another reported operation, the ASD broke in and destroyed data before it could be sold; the agency estimated that about 4.8 million files stolen from Australians, and hundreds of thousands of files from other victims worldwide, were destroyed.[3] The average self-reported cost of cyberattacks to businesses rose 16% to $93,500, while the average for medium-sized businesses rose 45% to $141,300.[4]

The ASD says the report offers guidance for individuals, businesses and critical-infrastructure operators seeking to strengthen their defences.[1] It advises organisations to use AI to improve resilience while preparing to counter adversaries’ malicious uses of the technology.[2] For individuals, the agency says reviewing privacy settings and enabling multi-factor authentication or passkeys can reduce the chance of becoming a cybercrime victim.[2] The report’s guidance therefore spans both organisational planning and basic personal account protections.[1][2] The reported scale of activity gives teams a reason to review their own preparedness rather than assume the threat is limited to one type of organisation.[1]