Cyberattacks on prominent companies ranging from Optus to Medibank Private to Latitude Financial abruptly ended any complacency about Australians’ increasing risk of data breaches and the misuse of their personal information.

Such cyberattacks will only become smarter and more frequent. Even the biggest companies with elaborate protections built in can’t guarantee systems are inviolable. Smaller businesses – and customers – tend to be even more vulnerable even if the results are usually less public.