'Take action': alert as cyber outages set to intensify

Australia faces intensifying threats to its national cybersecurity as artificial intelligence accelerates cyber attacks on businesses and individuals, according to the latest Cyber Threat Report from the Australian Signals Directorate. The public sector accounted for nearly half of the 1,500 incidents reported, with one classified as an extensive incident of the second-highest severity.

Reports to the Australian Cyber Security Centre surged 36% in the past five years, totaling 82,000 in the most recent financial year. Director-General Abigail Bradshaw warned that service outages will become the new norm, urging companies to prioritize security over access. Legacy technologies, unsupported by vendors, are Australia's biggest cybersecurity weakness.

All sectors of the Australian economy are at risk. Organisations must improve basic cyber hygiene and accept frequent network outages due to attacks. The prospect of compromise has increased. Medium-sized businesses have seen a significant rise in cybercrime losses, costing an average of $141,300, a 45% increase. Australian authorities collaborate with Five Eyes partners to test frontier AI models, such as Anthropic's Mythos 5, which can quickly identify and exploit software vulnerabilities.

Authorities urge closer relationships with AI model operators to better prepare for the upcoming wave of AI-driven attacks. The report omits recent high-profile cybersecurity incidents, including the global PHP outage and the breach of OpenAI data.