Insolvency
Cybercrime on the rise
…and so is the demand for forensic accountants By Melissa Lau* In 2020-21 Australian businesses and individuals lost more than $33 billion to cybercrime – and it’s on the rise. Which is why credit professionals need to be on their guard, more than ever, for the sake of their own businesses and those of customers. And with the increase in cybercrime, there’s now an even greater need to implement good cybersecurity strategies to protect against businesses being compromised.
Melissa Lau
In late 2020 I wrote an article about the rising demand for forensic accountants – particularly in light of increasing fraud around the globe. I noted that since the pandemic had begun, more unusual fraud cases had been appearing and occurring more quickly. Fast forward 14 months and cyber crime is flourishing. In 202021, Australian businesses and individuals lost a massive $33 billion as a result of cyber-attacks, with a cyber-attack occurring every eight minutes, according to the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC). And no sector of the Australian economy was spared. In its Annual Cyber Threat Report 2020-21, the ACSC revealed there were 67,500 cybercrime reports over the year, a 13 per cent increase compared with the previous year. What’s behind this rise? The increase in Australians working remotely, not to mention depending on the internet to access services and information and to communicate. “This dependence has increased the
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attack surface and generated more opportunities for malicious cyber actors to exploit vulnerable targets in Australia,” the report stated. Harking back to my article in late 2020 and my observation that more unusual fraud cases had been occurring, it’s a viewpoint echoed by the ACSC, which said that “the increasing frequency of cybercriminal activity is compounded by the increased complexity and sophistication of their services. The accessibility of cybercrime services – such as ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) – via the dark web increasingly opens the market to a growing number of malicious actors without significant technical expertise and without significant financial investment”.
Be aware At a business level, being aware of the dangers and staying on your guard is crucial. For credit professionals, the reason for this is two-fold: credit managers are an intrinsic part of the cash-flow
