Melbourne, Australia – Monday 28 September 2026
Australian businesses face losses of $37 billion a year by 2030 as AI-driven cyber threats surge
- Research estimates economic losses of up to $37 billion by 2030 if organisations take no additional action to mitigate advancing AI threats
- Foundational defensive actions could reduce losses by $24 billion
- The frequency of cyber incidents is expected to increase nine-fold as AI capabilities rapidly improve
- Large Australian businesses expected to lose $4.5m per cyber incident by 2030
A landmark research report into the economic costs to Australian businesses of Artificial Intelligence (AI) driven cyber attacks reveals that Australian businesses could lose up to $37 billion per year by 2030 as advancements in AI are predicted to make cyber attacks more frequent and severe.
The augmented attacker: the growing AI-driven cyber threat to Australian businesses report, conducted by Mandala Partners and commissioned by CyberCX, part of Accenture, anticipates that cyber incidents in Australia will increase nine-fold from 38,000 in 2025 to 357,000 in 2030, largely driven by rapid improvements in AI cyber capabilities. The report also expects a 16% increase in the severity of cyber loss incidents as AI increases the speed with which threat actors can attack Australian organisations.
CyberCX CEO John Paitaridis said: “AI is transforming the Australian economy and will provide businesses with a wealth of benefits, unlocking growth and innovation. However, we’re already seeing how threat actors can misuse this technology to devastating effect. This report says that what we see now may only be the tip of the iceberg as Australian businesses confront an advancing set of cyber risks over the next four years.
“While $37 billion a year in loss would represent a significant and material impact to our economy, it’s important to note that this estimate is modelled on a ‘do nothing’ scenario and assumes Australian businesses take no further steps to mitigate against AI-driven cyber threats. In reality, there are tangible actions that every business can take today to reduce the potential harm in the future.
“The frontline of the fight against AI-driven cyber threats is to go back to basics and ensure we are implementing the core principles of cyber security. Preventative actions and foundational security measures like enforcing multi-factor authentication, identity and access management and patching known vulnerabilities could reduce annual losses to $13 billion by 2030 and even further over time.”
Mandala Partners Partner Tom McMahon said: “What we now see clearly is that a BAU approach on cyber security in an AI-era would constitute a severe blow to the economy.
“Australian businesses are already underinvesting relative to the rest of the world, with just 4.4 per cent of Australian IT budgets going toward cyber security around half the global industry standard.
“The heartening news is that we already know how to mitigate most of the damage. Preventive actions ranging from secure by design approaches and continuous threat exposure management, to multi-factor authentication and patching known vulnerabilities can prevent some three-quarters of the projected economic loss by 2030. Responsive actions, like advanced monitoring that detects intrusions faster, can reduce most of the remainder. “
Nearly half of the cyber incident losses in 2030 are expected to be due to business interruptions. This includes the cost of systems being taken offline by ransomware, denial-of-service-attacks or a third-party supplier outage. Other drivers include losses to the threat actor directly, losses due to response and recovery, and loss due to external liabilities.
Preventive actions like MFA, patching known vulnerabilities, and securing AI deployments account for 75% – or $18 billion – of the reduction in economic loss by 2030 if Australian businesses adopt foundational defensive actions. Responsive actions, like continuous monitoring that detects intrusions earlier and limits the damage of each incident, accounts for a further $6 billion reduction.
The report highlights the need for increased cyber security investment across the economy, with Australian businesses in total spending 4.4 per cent of their IT budgets on cyber security in 2025, trailing the global industry standard of around 7-10 per cent.
About CyberCX
CyberCX, part of Accenture, is the leading provider of end-to-end cyber security and cloud services across New Zealand and Australia. With a workforce of 1,500 cyber security professionals, including close to 200 in New Zealand, CyberCX is a trusted partner to private and public sector organisations, helping customers confidently manage cyber risk, respond to incidents, and build resilience in an increasingly complex and challenging threat environment.
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