Annual cyber threat report highlights persistent threats

The Australian Signals Directorate’s (ASD) Annual Cyber Threat Report for 2024-25 highlights the persistent threat of malicious cyber activity to the nation, underscoring the urgency of action by all Australians and Australian businesses to raise the nation’s cyber defences. This year’s report illustrates how cyber criminals continue to impact many Australians, leveraging new technologies and techniques to expand their destructive attacks and cause widespread financial harm. It also details how state cyber actors continue to target business and critical infrastructure, as well as all levels of Australian government, in an attempt to conduct espionage, steal sensitive data or posture for disruptive attacks. These findings make it critical that all Australian businesses develop robust business continuity plans for service disruptions caused by a cyber incident. Key findings from the report include: ASD answered over 42,500 calls to the Australian Cyber Security Hotline, equating to around 116 calls per day. ASD responded to more than 1,200 cyber security incidents, an 11% increase from 2023-24. ASD received over 84,700 cybercrime reports, an average of one report every 6 minutes. The average self-reported cost of cybercrime per report for small business rose by 14 per cent to $56,600, while the cost to individuals rose 8% to $33,000. The report highlights the importance of government and industry partnerships in combatting cyber threats through intelligence sharing, combining insights and capabilities to block and counter these threats. These partnerships enable us to identify emerging threats and help defend Australian organisations in advance of cyber attacks. Increased cyber security awareness is leading to greater collaboration across government and industry, as well as reporting of cyber incidents. ASD’s Cyber Security Partnership Program grew to over 133,000 partners and the Cyber Threat Intelligence Sharing network now shares millions of indicators of compromise with hundreds of Australian partners. All Australian businesses and organisations are encouraged to join ASD’s Partnership Program at cyber.gov.au. The Australian Government is working to prevent cybercriminals from targeting the nation through its investment in Project REDPSPICE, which has already doubled ASD’s capacity to assist consenting private entities to uplift critical networks and counter malicious cyber activity. The 2024-25 Annual Cyber Threat Report is available here. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Richard Marles said: “ASD’s Annual Cyber Threat Report sharply illustrates that the nation faces an increasingly challenging threat landscape where cyber-enabled espionage and crime are not a hypothetical risk, but a real and increasing danger to the essential services we all rely on. The report makes clear that malicious actors have been working unseen to steal data and demand ransom payments from Australian victims, or to target our most critical networks for disruptive attacks. ASD’s annual assessment again shows the urgency of industry and government working collaboratively to raise our collective cyber defences and protect the digital arteries so essential to the nation and our economy.” Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Cyber Security Tony Burke said: “The Signals Directorate protects Australians every day. Our government is working hard to strengthen our cyber defences, but there are simple, effective steps that every Australian can take to keep themselves and their families safe online. Always install the latest software updates, use unique passphrases, enable multifactor authentication wherever it’s available, and if you receive an unexpected cold call, hang up and call back through the official line. Most cyber incidents are preventable, and basic defensive measures make a huge difference. Working together, we can keep our community safe online.” For Editorial Inquiries Contact: Editor Kym Bergmann at [email protected] For Advertising Inquiries Contact: Group Sales Director Simon Hadfield at [email protected]