Introduction On Safer Internet Day, it’s worth recognising a simple reality: AI is reshaping the Internet in two directions at once. The same tools accelerating productivity and innovation are also industrialising cybercrime, making attacks faster to launch, cheaper to run, and harder to spot. We’ve seen the impact in Australia. In 2024–25, the Australian Signals Directorate’s Australian Cyber Security Centre responded to over 1,200 cyber security incidents, with incidents involving DoS/DDoS attacks rising by more than 280%. This matters because the Internet underpins almost every essential service Australians rely on—banking, healthcare, education, transport, and government. When attacks disrupt ...