Australians should be ready for digital services to become temporarily unavailable while organisations address security risks, according to Guardian reporting on the Australian Signals Directorate’s annual cyber threat assessment. Agency chief Abigail Bradshaw and defence minister Richard Marles argued that protecting systems should take precedence over maintaining uninterrupted access.
The Guardian reports that ASD handled 1,500 cybersecurity incidents during 2025–26, a 20% annual increase. The agency also issued more than 4,400 notifications about potentially malicious incidents to outside organisations, up 80%. These figures describe the agency’s reported activity, rather than a count of all attacks across Australia.
ASD warned that criminals and state-backed actors are using AI to discover weaknesses and conduct attacks more efficiently. It urged organisations to deploy AI for detecting suspicious activity, identifying vulnerabilities and improving incident response. Bradshaw also highlighted ageing technology and devices without ongoing vendor updates as attractive targets. Alongside AI adoption, the agency recommended system upgrades, reporting suspicious incidents and seeking its assistance.