Optus, Telstra And The Rising Importance Of Cyber Security For Businesses

No doubt many would be aware of the headline grabbing cyber-attack on Optus recently, which affected millions of customers' personal data. Telstra also experienced a recent cyber-attack in which 30,000 past and present Telstra Staff had their personal details compromised. While these are some of the highest profile and most recent cyber-attacks, if you think these are isolated cases and something that only affects larger companies, you would be sorely mistaken.

According to the Australian Cyber Security Centre, on average, 164 cybercrime reports are made in Australia every day. That equates to about 1 report every 10 minutes. Around 60% of these attacks are made against small to medium businesses, and it is often those businesses that are not adequately equipped to deal with such attacks. The impact these attacks can have on a business can be devastating, with the cost of cyber-attacks ranging from thousands to millions of dollars, and those figures are only rising.

The increasing reach and sophistication of cyber-criminals means no business is safe without taking proper precautions. This is where the Cyber Initiative has been formed to help protect your business from 3 angles.

Having technology to block intruders isn't enough, and in today's hybrid business environment, you need your employees trained, and to have the correct policies and procedures in place, to help you defend your data and business from cyber threats. One of the most common and easily preventable contributing factors of cyber-attacks is user errors made by staff. Peter Stulcbauer of Martarna can provide online training for employees, as well as assist with policies and procedures that ensure personal identifiable information and data remain safe from such issues. Password management is another key element in having the right tools to stave off cyber attacks. This is something Martarna specialises in, ensuring that business owners don't use compromised or weak passwords to protect their systems.

Once training, policy procedures and password management tools are in place, the next stage of the cyber security process is to identify gaps in the IT and networking system. Ben Neilson at Cyber Security Perth can help in this area by performing Vulnerability Assessment scans in tandem with network/system/Office365 audits. By doing this, it uncovers potential gaps and threats, and shows what added security and advance monitoring may be needed. This cyber security proactive approach is complimentary to the IT reactive measures, as it helps drastically increase system security. The reports provided by Cyber Security Perth can help business owners make informed decisions about their level of cyber protection, and can be provided to IT companies who can use the information to implement further security measures where needed. These security checks and audits generally aren't carried out by IT companies, as they are too busy handling the day-to-day operations of the business. So this is where Cyber Security Perth can assist and complement the work done by the IT companies already engaged by a business.

That said, whilst getting the best training, awareness and security checks in place will certainly minimise the risk of an attack, the inevitable can and does unfortunately happen, and that is where Cyber Insurance comes in to deal with the costs and ramifications that a cyber-attack brings. This can include the costs of third party claims (compensation to third parties, fines/penalties from regulatory bodies for data loss, payment of ransoms), loss of income resulting from an interruption to the business, the cost of responding to and eradicating the threat, and losses suffered to the business from cyber fraud and cyber theft. The cost and frequency of such claims is skyrocketing every year. With an average insurance claim costing in the region of $77,000, this is something that many businesses simply cannot afford to deal with.

This is where Josh Evans of Aviso WA and Derek Ford of FordSure can help you provide a cyber insurance product to cover these losses. Both Derek and Josh can work with many insurance companies to not only find a Cyber Insurance policy that fits your needs, they can also provide you with the professional advice your business needs to make an informed decision.

By fighting the battle on these 3 fronts, you are ensuring your business is best equipped to deal with the ever present and expanding number of potential cyber-threats that all businesses face. In an increasingly online and data driven world, this is something that should be at the forefront of business owners' minds when thinking of their business and the protection they need. For more information, contact any of the team from the Cyber Initiative, who will be happy to discuss with you what you can do to protect your business.

Derek Ford Fordsure

0414 540 767 dford@iaa.net.au www.insuranceadviser.net/fordsure

Josh Evans Aviso WA

0438 311 166 joshe@avisowa.com.au www.avisowa.com.au

Peter Stulcbauer Martarna

0411 072 051 peter@martarna.com.au www.martarna.com.au

Ben Neilson Neilson IT

0439 273 659 ben@neilsonit.com.au www.neilsonit.com.au