Over the past ten years, the criminal landscape in Australia has fundamentally shifted. Serious and organised crime is no longer confined by geography or traditional structures. Networks now operate across borders, with decentralised models and digital capability that resemble multinational businesses.
Intelligence and law enforcement responses are adapting in step. Recent engagement through the Five Eyes Law Enforcement Group – made up of agencies from the UK, USA, Canada, New Zealand and Australia – reflects a shared focus on technology‑enabled threats and the need to respond with industry and international partners.
Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) CEO Heather Cook said the pace of change requires a strong coordinated response.
“Serious and organised crime is increasingly leveraging technology to support its entire business model. We are working closely with domestic and international partners to stay ahead of these threats and protect the community,” Ms Cook said.
This shift has not replaced traditional crime. It has reshaped it. This allows criminal groups to scale activity, anonymise and obscure their operations and identities, and adjust quickly in response to law enforcement action.
A borderless and connected threat
Digital connectivity has reduced the relevance of location. Criminal networks can plan activity in one country, execute it in another, and move money and profits through multiple jurisdictions. Many target Australia from offshore safe havens or operate entirely online.
Serious and organised crime networks are also less hierarchical. Fluid alliances link skills, logistics and market access. This allows them to adjust quickly to risk and opportunity.
Technology as a force multiplier
Technology underpins this shift. It expands opportunity, accelerates activity and enables crime at scale, which also increases victimisation.
Encrypted communications, digital currencies and online platforms allow offenders to coordinate and transact with less visibility. Criminal groups are also quick to adopt emerging tools, including artificial intelligence, to improve efficiency and evade detection.
Advances in artificial intelligence are lowering the barrier to entry to crime and increasing the speed at which victims can be targeted, contributing to rising online harms. The result is a sharper pace. Financial transfers, communications and transactions can occur in real time, reducing the window for discovery and disruption.
The shift online
A defining feature of the last decade is the expansion of digital environments, and criminal networks have not missed the opportunity to adopt. They use platforms that enable anonymous communication, coordination and trade – a criminal network can virtually be run from a smart phone.
This includes large-scale financial crime, cyber-enabled exploitation and offshore scam operations that target Australians directly. These activities generate significant harm while remaining difficult to trace and disrupt.
Online environments are also used to groom, coerce and exploit victims, including young people. Some individuals are drawn into offending through manipulation or intimidation, blurring the line between victim and offender.
Responding to a changing landscape
This environment requires more than a traditional policing response. It demands coordination across government, industry and the community, supported by intelligence, data and analytical capability.
Ms Cook said partnerships are central.
“We work closely with the AFP, state and territory partners and our international counterparts to take a united approach to tackling transnational and tech-enabled crime.”
Increasing collaboration with industry and technology providers is a critical enabler to countering today’s tech-enabled threats, and ensuring safety-by-design is a key principle in the development of future technology platforms. Recent engagement through the Five Eyes Law Enforcement Group reinforces the focus on working with technology companies to detect and disrupt harm earlier and build safer systems.
Criminal networks will continue to adapt alongside technology. Over the next decade, the task will be to keep pace – strengthening our intelligence insights, maintaining collaboration and building resilience across society to counter an increasingly dynamic and interconnected threat.