The latest Annual Cyber Threat Report from the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) lays bare the staggering scale of the cyber crime, which is costing the Australian economy tens of billions of dollars each year under Labor.
The cost of cybercrime is spiralling as online criminals crowd-in to target more and more Australians. It is deeply disappointing that cyber criminals are cashing in, and Australians are paying the price for Labor’s complacency.
Attacks against Australia’s critical infrastructure are up 11 per cent, while ransomware attacks against healthcare targets alone have doubled.
The average loss for larger businesses has tripled to $202,700 in just a year, while individual victims are now being extorted for an average $33,000.
Despite Labor’s 2023 Cyber Security Strategy, vulnerable Australians have never been more exposed. Small businesses are losing around $56,600 on average - a 14 per cent increase that is sending many to the wall.
Under Labor, those most in need of protection online are being left to fend for themselves.
Indigenous Australians, young people, elderly Australians and those living with disability are being hit with increasingly sophisticated scams using AI-powered social engineering to rob and defraud them.
Australia’s chronic cyber skills shortage has only worsened under the Albanese government . According to cyber security firm CyberCX, Australia is short tens of thousands of qualified cyber professionals, leaving businesses and government agencies less prepared.
Cyber extortion remains one of the most profitable forms of crime, and Australia continues to be a frequent target for state-backed hackers and transnational groups alike.
Concerningly, the report outlines that nine organisations across state governments, academia, large organisations, key supply chains, regulated critical infrastructure and the Federal government faced extensive compromise. Yet Labor has failed to materially increase defence funding or properly warn Australians of the threats we face.
Australia is facing its most dangerous strategic environment since World War II. An axis of autocracies is mobilising malicious cyber actors to infiltrate, coerce and sabotage targets across our society as part of a strategy of grey zone warfare designed to weaken and disrupt Australia from within.
The Director-General of ASD, Abigail Bradshaw and Cyber Security Coordinator, Lieutenant General Michelle McGuinness, have both warned that Australians will face more frequent and damaging attacks as criminals and state-backed entities deploy new technologies.
Despite ASD explicitly singling out state-sponsored cyber attacks on Australia by the Chinese Communist Party, Richard Marles and Tony Burke have failed to even mention this in their media statements. This silence is a failure of moral clarity. Australians deserve honesty about the threats we face - and a government prepared to back that honesty with action and funding.
The Albanese government must step up urgently. Australia needs stronger prevention, faster response and real digital deterrence so online gangs know that when they hit Australians they get hit back harder. Our agencies need the powers and resources to seize and recover the criminal wealth of hackers so Australian victims of cyber crime get more than sympathy, they get restitution.