# Australia’s outdated technology is vulnerable to AI hacking attacks, signals chief says

> Australia's signals-intelligence chief has warned that the country's aging government technology is dangerously exposed to AI-enabled cyberattacks. Abigail Bradshaw said updating systems that citizens now expect to be available around the clock would require, in her words, enormous amounts of money, framing outdated infrastructure as a national security problem rather than just an IT backlog. The concern is that AI lowers the cost and raises the speed of attacks, letting adversaries probe old systems faster than defenders can patch them. Legacy government software, often built decades ago and layered with workarounds, is exactly the kind of target that automated tools can exploit at scale. It is a warning with a price tag attached, and that is the hard part. Modernizing critical public systems competes with every other budget priority, and the payoff is invisible until something breaks. Bradshaw's point is that the calculus has changed: as AI tips the advantage toward attackers, the cost of leaving old systems in place is climbing faster than the cost of fixing them.

_Section: [Daily AI Updates](https://www.wortins.com/daily-ai) · Source: The Guardian · Published Tuesday, September 15, 2026_

## Wortins' read

Australia's signals-intelligence chief has warned that the country's aging government technology is dangerously exposed to AI-enabled cyberattacks. Abigail Bradshaw said updating systems that citizens now expect to be available around the clock would require, in her words, enormous amounts of money, framing outdated infrastructure as a national security problem rather than just an IT backlog. The concern is that AI lowers the cost and raises the speed of attacks, letting adversaries probe old systems faster than defenders can patch them. Legacy government software, often built decades ago and layered with workarounds, is exactly the kind of target that automated tools can exploit at scale. It is a warning with a price tag attached, and that is the hard part. Modernizing critical public systems competes with every other budget priority, and the payoff is invisible until something breaks. Bradshaw's point is that the calculus has changed: as AI tips the advantage toward attackers, the cost of leaving old systems in place is climbing faster than the cost of fixing them.

## Source

[Read the full story at The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/sep/15/australias-outdated-technology-is-vulnerable-to-ai-hacking-attacks-signals-chief-says)

## Related coverage

- [Lavender AI: Civilian harm is pre-programmed into the system](https://www.wortins.com/story/lavender-ai-civilian-harm-is-pre-programmed-into-the-system-802c1a7d) — [netzpolitik.org](https://netzpolitik.org/2026/interview-on-lavender-civilian-harm-is-pre-programmed-into-the-system/)
- [The contagion of fear](https://www.wortins.com/story/the-contagion-of-fear-bdc2d4e7) — [Simon Willison](https://simonwillison.net/2026/Sep/14/the-contagion-of-fear/)
- [‘I Like My Big Rat Wife’: Meet the People Using Chatbots to Write Custom Fiction](https://www.wortins.com/story/i-like-my-big-rat-wife-meet-the-people-using-chatbots-to-wri-648dd4b7) — [Wired](https://www.wired.com/story/chatbot-generated-fiction-i-like-my-big-rat-wife/)
- [US plans to raise AI-directed cyberattacks with China during Xi summit](https://www.wortins.com/story/us-plans-to-raise-ai-directed-cyberattacks-with-china-during-55d719a2) — [The Next Web](https://thenextweb.com/news/us-china-ai-talks-cyberattacks-trump-xi-summit-september)
- [Agentic commerce is loosening the grocery aisle's grip on the shopper](https://www.wortins.com/story/agentic-commerce-is-loosening-the-grocery-aisle-s-grip-on-th-ade8f896) — [The Next Web](https://thenextweb.com/news/agentic-commerce-grocery-ai-neomi)
- [Cybersecurity stocks were the top performers in the S&P 500 on Monday amid escalating AI fears; CrowdStrike rose 14%, Palo Alto Networks 13%, and Fortinet 9% (Britney Nguyen/MarketWatch)](https://www.wortins.com/story/cybersecurity-stocks-were-the-top-performers-in-the-s-p-500--6b251c6d) — [MarketWatch](https://www.techmeme.com/260914/p42#a260914p42)

---

_Curated and written by [Wortins](https://www.wortins.com) — The daily AI briefing. Every story links to its original source; the "Wortins read" on each is our own original analysis. [About Wortins & our editorial approach](https://www.wortins.com/about)._