Aussie orgs report facing cyber risks

Three in four Australian organisations have been victim to at least one successful ransomware attack in the past two years, according to new research from Veritas Technologies.

A survey of executives and IT practitioners across 12 global markets found that only 55% of these had reported the attack publicly, with 20% having not reported it, despite the cost of compliance fines faced by respondents’ organisations reaching an average of US$20,000 during the last year.

The survey also found that Australian organisations have increased their data protection budgets by as much as 40% over the last 12 months as a result of the growing scale of the cyberthreat. Meanwhile a majority (57%) said risks across the board have increased over the past 12 months, with only 13% saying risks had decreased over this time.

As well as increasing budgets, Australian respondents are exploring new ways to fortify their defences, including AI and machine learning (72%). But at the same time, around 32% still have no or only a partial data recovery plan in place for after an attack, despite 55% having experienced data loss at least once in the past two years.

Nearly all (94%) respondents reported experiencing a negative impact from risks, including reputational and financial harm. Data security is the second most common risk to have effected organisations (43%) after competition risks (48%).

Veritas managing director for ANZ Pete Murray said the findings should be a wake-up call for businesses. “Australian organisations are clearly prepared to invest in their data security, but it is still important to avoid complacency, as the threat landscape is constantly evolving,” he said.

“The high-profile data breaches last year have shown us that no business is immune. A comprehensive cyber resiliency plan is essential for protecting and recovering your data from cyber events — and perhaps more importantly, this plan must be tested, rehearsed and recalibrated regularly. Being forewarned is forearmed.”

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