Annual Cyber Threat Report 2025-26

ASD’s ACSC has observed cybercriminals rapidly acquiring public and stolen data to extract useful information – such as usernames and passwords – to accelerate their activities. Some AI tools can scrape social media and public sources to quickly profile victims for future malicious cyber activity – such as identity theft, fraud and social engineering attempts.

According to public reporting, in 2025, a US-based AI company disrupted a cybercriminal group that used their AI to generate code for the theft and extortion of personal data at scale. The actor used the AI to semi-automate aspects of their operation from reconnaissance to network compromise. The AI also obtained and analysed financial data from victim organisations to determine a ransom amount. Although the effectiveness of the attack is not clear, this example demonstrates how AI may be used by malicious cyber actors.