The Australian Signals Directorate says security must come before availability, reporting a 20% rise in incidents it handled and an 80% jump in alerts to organisations in 2025-26.
Australia's signals intelligence agency has told the public to be ready for basic and important online services to go offline unexpectedly, arguing that "system security must be prioritised over system availability". The message comes with the Australian Signals Directorate's (ASD) annual cyber threat report, as reported by the Guardian. The agency said it responded to 1,500 cybersecurity incidents in the 2025-26 year, up 20% on the previous year, and notified external organisations, including businesses, governments and critical infrastructure operators, of more than 4,400 potential malicious incidents, an increase of 80%.
According to the report, hostile governments, criminals and other hackers are increasingly using artificial intelligence to gather intelligence, find vulnerabilities, disrupt critical infrastructure and steal money, and to do so faster and more effectively. ASD said government and private networks faced persistent breach attempts from state-based actors, and that actors in the Indo-Pacific could be positioning for future intelligence collection or disruption in the event of a conflict. ASD director general Abigail Bradshaw said defenders need AI tools to automate their defences, and identified outdated, unsupported "legacy technology" as among the biggest risks and most attractive targets. The agency described cybersecurity as a core business risk and a leadership responsibility, not only a technical matter.
The practical consequence, according to Bradshaw and Defence Minister Richard Marles, is that organisations should secure their systems even if that means taking them offline, so more services may be interrupted while problems are fixed. ASD urged organisations to update their systems, seek its help and report suspicious incidents, while Marles said Australians must strengthen their defences while harnessing AI's benefits. The figures and warnings are ASD's own, reported by the Guardian, and show how governments are weighing the trade-off between keeping services running and keeping them safe.
