Cyber Awareness Month – How cyber aware are you?

Author: Scott Thomson, CP (Cyber) Snr MACS, IRAP Assessor, MAICD, CISSP, CRISC, CISA

Director Cyber & IM

The Australian Signals Directorate’s Australian Cyber Security Centre (ASD’s ACSC) has recently released its Annual Cyber Threat Report 2024–2025 which provides insights into the cybersecurity and cybercriminal landscape in Australia. While most organisations are undertaking a range of good activities for Cyber Awareness month the report is a timely reminder of the need to be cyber safe every day of every month.

Some key findings the report identified were:

• An increase of 16% in calls made to the ACSC reporting cyber-attacks and cybercrimes
• more than 1700 notifications to organisations of threats made by ASD (83% increase)
• Cyber Attackers are regularly using vulnerabilities in user computers and applications that have not been updated with the latest patches
• Cyber Attackers are using AI to craft more sophisticated attacks against users and emphasise the need for good password hygiene and use of MFA.

They also reported that costs per reported cybercrime for business has increased 55% for medium businesses at $97,200 and at least $200,000 for large businesses. To avoid these costs, businesses need to invest in uplifting their cyber security posture so that when an attack occurs it is quicker to respond and contain.

After Government, Finance and Healthcare are then next most targeted industries.

The ASD recommends organisations focus on four key actions:

• Ensure you have best-practice event logging in place.
• Replace legacy technology or put appropriate mitigations in place.
• Choose products and services that are secure by design.
• Adopt post-quantum cryptography to safeguard your digital infrastructure.

It is also good practice to have an up-to-date Cyber Incident Response Plan and to test that plan at least annually and to operate on the basis of when a cyber-attack happens not if a cyber-attack happens.

Individuals are also facing an increase in costs with each self-reported cybercrime now resulting in a loss of more than $30,000 for individuals. Identity fraud is still the most common threat.

Individuals should sign up to Scam watch to stay current on the latest tactics cybercriminals and scammers are using. With large data breaches such as Optus, Medibank and most recently Qantas, a lot of personal data is now available for cybercriminals to use against individuals.

If your business is not sure of the cyber risks that it faces or if the controls that are in place would be effective, then a cyber audit or a cyber incident exercise are proven ways to know how secure and prepared you are. Need help, contact our Cyber & IM team at Centium.