Nothing can overwhelm a company faster than a ransom attack by cyber extortion gangs or a massive theft of data collected from millions of customers. For many businesses, using that data is key to their future competitiveness.

But data can quickly change from a valuable commodity to reputational poison if it’s captured by criminals. Two years after the Optus and Medibank hacks shocked Australia, these are now existential matters, not just for the IT and security wonks but the boardroom and the chief executive.