Albanese Government works with public and private sector organisations to strengthen cyber resilience

The Albanese Government is working with public and private sector organisations to strengthen their cyber resilience as the Australian Signals Directorate’s (ASD) Annual Cyber Threat Report for 2025-26 highlights the need for continued vigilance against malicious state actors and cybercriminals targeting Australian networks.

The Annual Cyber Threat Report recognises that artificial intelligence (AI) has been the defining force in the cyber threat landscape over the past year, allowing malicious actors to identify vulnerabilities faster and exploit them at unprecedented scale, speed and sophistication to conduct espionage, steal money and disrupt systems.

The rapid adoption of AI has brought new and evolving security risks, including those stemming from the unintended actions of AI agents and model testing. 

Since the Second World War, no technology has carried greater potential to boost our sovereign capabilities, strengthen our national security and build our economic resilience.

In this environment, the likelihood of cyber incidents has increased substantially and Australian organisations need to take action accordingly. It is vital that businesses prepare for service disruptions from a cyber incident. Protecting Australia's critical infrastructure and essential services starts with strengthening cyber resilience, addressing vulnerabilities quickly and embedding strong cyber security practices before incidents occur. We are asking all entities to lower thresholds for reporting to ASD and to prioritise security over service availability. 

Key findings from the 2025-26 Annual Cyber Threat Report include:

• ASD notified entities of potential malicious cyber activity more than 4,400 times, up almost 80%, including mass notifications to over 2,100 entities.    
• ASD responded to more than 1,500 cyber security incidents, up more than  20% from    2024-25 and 36% over the past five years. 
• ASD received over 82,000 cybercrime reports, an average of one report every six minutes.
• ASD answered over 37,500 calls to the Australian Cyber Security Hotline, equating to around 102 calls per day.
• ASD published 76 alerts, advisories and publications on cyber.gov.au, including a range of joint products with international partners

The report also highlights the growing impact of cybercrime on Australians and Australian organisations. ASD’s Australian Protective Domain Name System processed more than 220 billion queries and blocked access to more than 564 million malicious domains during the reporting period. The average self-reported cost of cybercrime was $33,000 for individuals and $93,500 for businesses.

The Annual Cyber Threat Report reinforces the importance of government and industry partnerships in combatting cyber threats through intelligence sharing, combining the insights and capabilities of both to block and counter evolving threats. 

It calls on organisations to take five essential cyber security actions: log all cyber events, replace legacy technology, manage supply chain risks, strengthen AI preparedness and prepare now for quantum computing that may compromise current encryption. 

ASD’s Cyber Security Partnership Program grew to over 149,500 partners and the Cyber Threat Intelligence Sharing network shared over one million indicators of compromise with hundreds of Australian partners. A collective understanding of the threats improves cyber defences for the whole nation.

The 2025-26 Annual Cyber Threat Report is available here.

Quotes attributable to the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence, the Hon Richard Marles MP:

“ASD’s Annual Cyber Threat Report reflects the fact that Australia continues to face a challenging strategic environment with AI accelerating the scale, speed and complexity of cyber threats.

“AI is reshaping the online landscape, enabling cybercriminals and state-sponsored actors to launch faster, more sophisticated and scalable attacks. To stay ahead, Australians must enhance their cyber defences while harnessing AI’s benefits. 

“The Annual Cyber Threat Report reinforces that government and industry must continue to work together to strengthen our collective cyber resilience and safeguard our critical digital infrastructure.”

Quotes attributable to the Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Cyber Security, Tony Burke MP:

“Cyber security has never been more important - being under attack is certain, constant and ever present. 

“To keep people safe, we’re positioning Australia to respond to the evolving threats and opportunities presented by emerging technologies.

“That starts with protecting critical infrastructure and government systems, securing technology at its source and enabling people as our strongest defence to become Australia’s “human firewall”.”