Australia’s cybersecurity problem

Corporate Australia and our government departments and agencies are in trouble, and not just because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Corporate Australia and our government departments and agencies are in trouble. Not just because of the social and economic devastation the COVID-19 pandemic has and continues to deliver, but because of their failure to understand that cybersecurity should be a top priority.

Everything we now do is mandated by COVID’s influence – reinforcing the terms and conditions of an invisible enemy.

It has become clear the world is now at COVID’s mercy, and if as a country we refuse to adopt the right strategies to counter the ongoing dangers it continues to pose, our fate remains determined by a virus we are unable to control – cybersecurity through the COVID-19 pandemic, has become the virtual world’s bonanza, where cyber criminals are ramping up their efforts at a rate of an astonishing 1000 to 1 in search for the riches of information and financial gain they seek to prosper from

In the thick haze COVID-19 has cast, cyber criminals are surfing it as a wave of manifested opportunity.

Cybercrime in Australia has grown since February 2020 at such a phenomenal rate, it has spooked the Australian government to a point where it’s now begun to work through strategies around how it can combat a problem it should have been prepared for – regardless of whether we are in a COVID-19 virus initiated crisis or not.

The problem has become an out of control runaway train where the brakes have malfunctioned through neglect, and their deployment to bring it to a halt are unable to be applied.

Recent statistics collated by the Security in Depth research team show cybercrime has exploded, skyrocketing to record figures not seen in Australia before.

Cybercriminal activity has seen an increase in hacking, phishing and ransomware activity, up more than 300 per cent on figures for the same period in 2019.

Figures for April this year show cyberattacks have increased by a disturbing 181 per cent up 94 per cent for the same period last year.

The rate of hacking incidents have also increased 234 per cent up 103 per cent from the same time last year while phishing and ransomware attacks have also risen by a further 172 per cent.

As disturbing as the figures remain for corporate Australia and government, it’s the of number of increased attacks on State and Federal governments and their research organisations and bodies, that has eyebrows raised among cybersecurity experts.

The rate of attacks are unprecedented, and it seems they are destined to continue to grow as hackers exploit the weaknesses that exist within corporate Australia and government, and in many ways, failing to heed the warning signs has been an unnecessary burden created where all Australians become the collateral damage because of arrogance and naivety.

Cybercrime has now reached a point where DFAT, the ACSC, DSD and ASIO have begun broadcasting messages warning to take greater care with what they do online and how they are doing it.

It’s difficult to comprehend how and why some of our key government agencies are driving a warning message of caution, when it seems to be a position now of too little too late.

Driving the breaches in cybersecurity and increases in phishing, hacking and ransomware attacks are State Actors trying to access COVID-19 research. Research that they believe they can profit from.

It’s a serious disturbing indictment on corporate Australia and State and Federal governments lack of planning and engagement on a $100bn global industry burgeoning out of control.

COVID has highlighted just how ill-equipped we remain to deal with cybercrime, and its not as though the warning signs haven’t been there.

It was inevitable cyber criminals would use COVID to hack into Australian companies – opportunism is the trait of criminals who seek to prosper when things are dire.

However, it’s the ongoing naivety of corporate Australia who refused to take the matter of cyber security seriously pre-COVID, that has now created an environment where lockdown and working from home without the sufficient tools and protocols for staff to work safely, have not only given hackers the key to the castle, but are allowed them to rob it of its riches.

And in these figures released of extreme heightened cybercriminal activity, corporate Australia continue to fail to act.

Since 2015, cybercrime has been on the rise, but it’s ramped up with such ferocity and speed, a noose now hangs precariously around the neck of Australia.

COVID-19 it seems, has dealt Australians a double blow – we are at the mercy of a global pandemic that has changed the world forever, while allowing cybercriminals even greater access to run rampant and do as they please and when they please without any real plans as to how to fix a problem that should never have been allowed to occur.

Michael Connory is the CEO of Security In Depth