Autistic adults may have elevated risks of being involved in cyber-related crime, with Flinders University experts warning that these people might fall into such crimes unwittingly.
New research published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders compared responses from 138 autistic and 206 non-autistic adults to assess their awareness and responses to cyber-dependent crime, or their possible engagement with crimes connected to cyberspace.
“This latest study, including validation checks to improve the reliability of the findings, found that the relationship between autism and cyber-dependent crime was not due to autistic adults having more advanced digital skills or difficulties with perspective-taking,” says Dr Alliyza Lim, a clinical psychologist and research fellow at Flinders University.
“Our preliminary findings suggest that specific autistic characteristics may be associated with engagement in different types of cybercrime – but we are not exactly sure why that is.
“However, if specific characteristics of autism make people more vulnerable to becoming involved in cybercrime – and potentially inadvertently – there is a need for greater education and safeguarding measures to protect autistic individuals in cyberspace.”
Cyber threats are rising in Australia. In 2025-26, the federal Australian Cyber Security Centre responded to more than 1,500 cyber security incidents, an increase of more than 20%, and reported potential malicious activity more than 4,400 times, almost an 80% increase on the previous year.
While there is limited objective data to suggest that autistic adults are more engaged in cybercrime, a report by the UK’s National Crime Agency from 2022 that found that 17% of subjects referred for cyber crime activity either had a diagnosis of autism or self-identified as autistic (compared to the general prevalence rate of autism of about 2%).
Dr Lim says this information is important for members of the autism community and their families, particularly as ever more sophisticated cyber-dependent crimes occur in everyday activities.
“This study indicates that autism may be a risk factor for a person’s involvement in cybercrime. However, whether autism diagnosis is the driving factor in this relationship, or if there are other individual and socio-environmental factors involved, should be considered by future studies,” says senior author Emeritus Professor Neil Brewer.
Dr Lim and Professor Brewer are part of the Flinders Autism Research Initiative at the College of Human Sciences and Culture at Flinders University.
The article, ‘Cyber dependent crime may be predicted by autism diagnosis but not autistic traits’ (2026) by Alliyza Lim and Neil Brewer, has been published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. 10.1007/s10803-026-07580-1.
Acknowledgements: This research was supported by Australian Research Council Discovery Program funding to Prof N Brewer and Prof RL Young (Grant DP 190100162).