If last year was the warm-up act for cybercrime, then 2026 is the stadium tour. According to Cybersecurity Ventures, global cybercrime damage costs were projected to reach around $10.5 trillion a year by 2025, with scams and fraud a major part of the damage.
In Australia, cyber incidents are now measured in minutes, not months, and the average loss for a small business sits in the tens of thousands. From a scammer’s point of view, you are the sweet spot: you hold money, customer data, and access into bigger organisations, but you do not have the layers of defence or a full-time security team they do.
At the same time, everyone is being told generative AI will transform productivity. Let’s hope so, because right now it is definitely transforming fraud. With AI supercharging scams, SMEs and startups that lack the budget for a chief security officer need a clear view of what to watch for in 2026.
Stacey Edmonds, a SmartCompany contributor who runs Lively, the Learning Agency behind The Cyber Safety Game series, breaks down the latest cyber threats, from deepfake bosses to ransomware, that are attacking Aussies.
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