{"id":815161,"date":"2026-10-27T05:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T05:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/815161\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T05:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T05:38:09","slug":"australians-should-prepare-for-online-services-to-go-down-unexpectedly-as-threats-rise-cyber-agency-warns-ai-artificial-intelligence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/815161\/","title":{"rendered":"Australians should prepare for online services to go down unexpectedly as threats rise, cyber agency warns | AI (artificial intelligence)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australians should prepare for more basic and important online services to go offline unexpectedly, the nation\u2019s signals intelligence agency has warned, urging that \u201csystem security must be prioritised over system availability\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) also says businesses and critical infrastructure must use cutting-edge AI models to defend against digital threats, raising alarm that artificial intelligence is enabling more dangerous threats than ever.<\/p>\n

In its annual cyber threat report, the ASD warns hostile foreign governments, criminals and hackers are using AI to gather intelligence, disrupt critical infrastructure and steal money, and that Australians should fight fire with fire.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need AI tools to help automate our defences to stay ahead of AI-enabled attackers,\u201d the ASD director general, Abigail Bradshaw, said on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustralia must accelerate the modernisation of its technology and cybersecurity foundations to protect the systems we rely on every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

The annual threat report, released on Tuesday, revealed that ASD had responded to 1,500 cybersecurity incidents in the 2025-26 year, an increase of 20% from the previous year. It also notified external entities \u2013 including businesses, governments and critical infrastructure \u2013 of more than 4,400 potential malicious cyber incidents, up 80% in a year. AI is expected to accelerate those dangers in future.<\/p>\n

ASD said government and private networks in Australia experienced \u201cpersistent\u201d breach attempts from state-based actors last year, and claimed such actors \u201cin the Indo-Pacific\u201d could be launching attacks to prepare for potential future conflicts \u2013 including \u201cfuture intelligence collection or disruption activities\u201d.<\/p>\n

The agency said the increasing availability of AI was creating positive opportunities but also allowing cybercriminals and state-based actors to find vulnerabilities and launch attacks faster and more effectively. ASD warned \u201call network owners are facing elevated threat levels\u201d, saying cybersecurity was now a \u201ccore business risk and leadership responsibility\u201d for all organisations, no longer only a technical concern.<\/p>\n

The report said integrating AI tools into cybersecurity functions could help find potential weaknesses or suspicious behaviour, and improve responses.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo strengthen our cyber defences, we must harness the technologies that are reshaping the threat environment,\u201d Bradshaw said.<\/p>\n

She has spoken previously about ASD having access to Anthropic\u2019s Mythos model<\/a>, the powerful AI tool the frontier lab said it could not release publicly because it could identify unknown flaws in IT systems. While the use of AI by malicious actors is on the rise, Australian government agencies believe having access to such frontier models and collaborating with leading AI labs is critical to bolstering cybersecurity.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo stay ahead, Australians must enhance their cyber defences while harnessing AI\u2019s benefit,\u201d the defence minister, Richard Marles, said on the report\u2019s release.<\/p>\n

Tony Burke, the minister for home affairs and cybersecurity, said the government was \u201cpositioning Australia to respond to the evolving threats and opportunities presented by emerging technologies\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Bradshaw said \u201clegacy technology\u201d, such as outdated systems or devices that were no longer supported with new updates by their creators, were among the biggest risks and most attractive targets for hackers. ASD called for Australia to modernise technology and cybersecurity capabilities, and said all organisations must take stronger action to ward off new threats.<\/p>\n

Last week, newly discovered<\/a> vulnerabilities in PHP \u2013 a programming language that underpins most websites<\/a> \u2013 triggered a rush by governments and businesses to fix the problem.<\/p>\n

ASD urged organisations to update their systems, seek help from ASD and report suspicious incidents.<\/p>\n

Bradshaw and Marles said organisations should prioritise the security of their systems over keeping them online, which could mean more services are forced to go offline while they are secured.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a threat environment transformed by AI, collective action is our strongest defence,\u201d Bradshaw said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australians should prepare for more basic and important online services to go offline unexpectedly, the nation\u2019s signals intelligence…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":815162,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-815161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=815161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/815162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=815161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=815161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=815161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}