Senate Two-minute Statement
27 October 2025
In today’s connected world, much of our daily life happens online, from working and shopping to using social media. Despite the convenience this brings, cybersecurity is often an afterthought, even as data breaches and scams dominate the headlines. October marks Cyber Security Awareness Month, and this year’s theme ‘Building our cyber safe culture’ encourages Australians to protect their accounts and devices. We can all improve our online safety through a couple of simple things every day—for instance, by installing software updates promptly using strong and unique passphrases, by enabling multifactor authentication and by avoiding suspicious calls and text messages, which I am sure we are all too familiar with. These small steps make a very big difference in safeguarding personal information and reducing the risk of scams, identity theft and cyberattacks.
As scams become more sophisticated, particularly with the rise of AI, Australians need accurate and up-to-date advice. The government’s Act Now. Stay Secure. website, for instance, provides practical resources to help everyone to adopt safe cyber habits. The Australian Signals Directorate’s Annual cyber threat report 2024-25 released this month reveals that cybercriminals and state-sponsored cyberactors continue to target Australian individuals and businesses, costing the economy millions of dollars. In 2024-25, the Australian Cyber Security Hotline received over 42,000 calls—a 16 per cent increase—with average self-reported cost of cybercrime rising by 14 per cent to $56,600 for small businesses and by eight per cent to $33,000 for individuals.
