As the country continues to face an increasingly deteriorating cyber environment, Australians are encouraged more than ever to help protect the nation’s cybersecurity future as the Australian Cyber and Security Centre (ACSC) launches its third annual Cyber Threat Report. 

The latest Annual Cyber Threat Report has expanded upon the findings in the previous year’s report, revealing that Australia’s cyberspace has become a “battleground” as cyber experts saw an increase in the number and sophistication of cyber threats. 

“Over the last financial year and reflecting strategic competition globally, we have all witnessed a heightened level of malicious cyber activity. Regrettably, too many Australians have also felt its impacts,” Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Richard Marles says. 

“Threat actors across the world continue to find innovative ways to deploy online attacks, as a result too many Australians have felt the impacts of cybercrime. That is why the Government is committed to reinforcing Australia’s cyber security as a national priority.” 

Rising trends from the annual report  

The latest report reveals that, with cyber increasingly becoming the domain of warfare, countries within the Indo-Pacific are seeing an increasing risk of crisis and cyber operations that will challenge their sovereignty. 

The ACSC report also stated that critical infrastructure networks were being targeted worldwide, with Australia recently witnessing attacks on Optus and Medibank bringing great concern as essential services are put at risk.  

Following this, Australia’s prosperity in recent years has also brought unwelcome attention from cyber criminals.  

The report shown that in 2021-22, cybercrimes directed at individual Australians remained among the most common while Business Email Compromise (BEC) trended towards targeting high value transactions. 

Organisations and individuals have also been indiscriminately targeted by malicious cyber actors who persistently scan for unpatched systems to use them as entry points for higher value targets. 

These trends, along with the increase in destructive ransomware attacks that target the reputation of Australian organisations, have led to concerns regarding the digital-dependent Australian economy. 

“We are currently witnessing deteriorating strategic circumstances in our region and globally, including a military build-up unseen since World War II, and expanding cyber and grey zone capabilities are of particular concern,” Minister Marles says. 

In the face of rising threats to the digital-dependent Australian economy, cyber defence must be a priority for all Australians.   

Report lays out government response to the rising threat environment 

Minister Marles states that the federal government considers cyber security and reinforcing our online resilience to be a national priority. 

“In this environment, the work performed by ASD and its ACSC is more important than ever,” he says. 

The report reveals that there will be an increased investment towards REDSPICE (Resilience, Effects, Defence, SPace, Intelligence, Cyber, Enablers).  

Aside from expanding the range and sophistication of ASD’s intelligence, offensive and defensive cyber capabilities, the investment will also deliver forward-looking capabilities essential to maintaining Australia’s strategic advantage and capability edge. 

A new generation of cyber and intelligence experts will also be trained under the REDSPICE program, creating a distributed workforce that will create additional redundancy in ASD’s critical capabilities. 

These new experts will also provide opportunities for greater partnership with industry, academia and other sectors of the Australian economy. 

REDSPICE will also provide $5 billion in opportunities for Australian industry including SMEs.  

This will grow the wider Australian cyber security sector while addressing future cyber threats by providing new intelligence capabilities and building Australia’s threat intelligence picture. 

“The better news is that with increased collaboration across industry, small business, and government—and with all Australians—our joint cybersecurity future and the digital opportunities before us remain bright,” Minister Marles says. 

Eliza Sayon

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Eliza is a content producer and editor at Public Spectrum. She is an experienced writer on topics related to the government and to the public, as well as stories that uplift and improve the community.

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