Yesterday at our October Business Breakfast with Project Lab, if any of our attendees were a little drowsy at its commencement, they were quickly roused, and not gm rolex datejust rolex calibre 2836 2813 126334wrj mens silver tone by the coffee! The grim reality is that cyber-crime is a huge risk to businesses, organisations and homes worldwide and Australia is not immune – in fact, we’re a prime target.
If you couldn’t make it to yesterday’s breakfast, here are a few key facts you should know:
- If we measure cyber-crime as a country, it can be considered as the world’s third-largest economy after USA and China. (This is even larger than the damage caused annually because of natural disasters, and even more profitable than the combined trade of illegal drugs globally).
- A 2020 Global Attitude survey found Australia is a top target for cyber-attacks, with 67% of respondents reporting a ransomware attack, coming in second behind India from the 12 countries surveyed (Australia, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Middle East, Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, U.K. and U.S).
- In 2020/2021 Australians reported losing over $33 billion due to cyber-crime with 1 in 3 adults affected.
- $29 Billion is the estimated cost of cyber-crime to Australian businesses last year. Medium sized businesses were the most affected.
- Almost 90% of small businesses think they are safe because they have antivirus software. This is a big mistake! 43% of attacks were targeted at small business, but only 14% were prepared for defence.
- A cyber-attack occurs in Australia every 8 minutes.
- Phishing attacks in Australia increased by 75% from 2019. Worldwide COVID related phishing increased by 600%. (Phishing is where bad guys pose as a trustworthy organisation or person, using online communication to send dodgy links or attachments to access and steal people’s info for financial gain).
- On average, it takes a business 51 days to resolve a ransomware attack.
- 90% of cyber-attacks are due to human error.
Have you considered the consequences of a cyber-attack on your business?
- The financial losses?
- Having to close and stand staff down while the issue is corrected?
- Having to replace equipment?
- Customer/Client loss?
- Compromised customer/client data
- Lost time from re-entering data/recreating work?
This is a serious risk for your business – no matter what size or industry you’re in. A Café or Retailer’s Point of Sale can be attacked click to visit right through to systems in large corporate environments.
So, what can businesses/organisations do?
Gold Chamber Member, The Project Lab, are currently running the CyberUP program. The Tassie CyberUP team are funded by AusIndustry to help our SMB’s develop a Cyber Risk Plan for their business at no cost.
You can book in for a free 2-hour session online, or a team member will come to you.
CyberUP are also running free cyber-crime awareness workshops online and around the state. They can even visit your business for an in-house session.
Not-for-profits are also eligible for help under this program.
For more details on the CyberUP program, please visit: https://www.theprojectlab.com/cyberup