New laws and cheaper cyber security solutions are needed, after the COVID-19 home working era highlighted a growing gap between the cyber capabilities of big and smaller businesses, which could pose an ongoing threat to the national supply chain, according to Australia's top industry research body.

A report from the federally funded Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre on the risks seen from mass remote working during the COVID-19 pandemic, found SMEs are cutting security corners to enable staff to work from home, and have blamed cost for not upgrading cyber security systems.