Australians should prepare for online services to go down unexpectedly as threats rise, cyber agency warns
Australia’s Signals Directorate (ASD) has warned that online services could go offline unexpectedly as cyber threats grow, and says organisations should put system security ahead of keeping every service available. Its annual report says artificial intelligence is helping criminals and foreign state actors find weaknesses and launch attacks more quickly, so defenders need advanced AI tools as well.
In 2025-26, ASD responded to 1,500 cyber security incidents, 20% more than the year before, and alerted organisations to more than 4,400 potential malicious incidents, an 80% rise. The agency also reported persistent attempts to breach Australian government and private networks, warning that outdated technology is a major risk and that attacks could prepare for future intelligence gathering or disruption.
In short
- ASD says Australian online services may go offline as threats rise.
- It handled 1,500 incidents, up 20% in a year.
- The agency urges organisations to modernise and use AI for defence.
Steelman: both sides, in good faith
The strongest fair case each way — we don't pick a winner.
The case for
Prioritising security over uninterrupted service can reduce the chance that a breach exposes sensitive information or lets attackers disrupt systems more severely. With reported incidents and alerts rising, organisations may reasonably accept temporary outages, and invest in modern systems and defensive AI, to protect users and essential services over the longer term.
The case against
Making security the overriding priority can impose real costs when outages interrupt public services, business, or people’s access to essential information. Organisations could argue for proportionate safeguards that preserve availability, since broad shutdowns may cause harm of their own and the reported increase in incidents does not by itself show that service availability should generally take second place.
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