More than 87,400 commercial cybercrimes were reported last financial year, the Australian Signals Directorate intelligence agency says in an annual update.

Small businesses made most of the self-reports, with incidents costing an average of $49,600, up 8% on the previous year.

Medium-sized businesses recorded a 35% drop in the average cost of reported incidents, down to $62,800, and the cost to large businesses fell 11% to $63,600.

Overall, the number of self-reported business cybercrimes fell 7%, but that does not mean the danger has eased.

“Cybercrime is a persistent and disruptive threat,” the agency says. “Cybercriminals are adapting to capitalise on new opportunities such as artificial intelligence, which reduces the level of sophistication needed for cybercriminals to operate.

“The cyber threat to businesses is constantly evolving. Australian businesses that hold either customer data or proprietary knowledge make attractive targets for cybercriminals.”

Business email compromise was among the most commonly reported cybercrimes, the update says.

Companies lost almost $84 million in email fraud incidents, averaging more than $55,000 for each confirmed event.

By sector, the financial and insurance services industry accounted for 4% of cybersecurity incidents. The federal government topped the list at 37%, followed by state and local governments at 12% and healthcare and social assistance at 6%.

The agency says government organisations and regulated critical infrastructure have additional reporting obligations, which may explain their relatively high reporting.

It says AI continues to shape the cybercrime landscape and offenders use it to conduct increasingly targeted attacks.

“Cybercriminals may leverage AI-enhanced social engineering, as it is accessible to low-capability actors and can be used to circumvent network defences.

“Cybercriminals may also use AI to create new methods of social engineering attacks, such as imitating a target’s voice based on an audio sample.

“Using AI in social engineering attacks means cybercriminals can maximise their success rates with little additional effort, increasing the potential for network compromise and the overall threat posed.”

Click here for the report.