Australian businesses reported cyber-crime losses of more than $33 billion last financial year. That’s one cyber attack every eight minutes, according to the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC). Yet most small businesses are grossly ill-prepared to defend themselves against cyber crooks.
Business Australia confirms a high level of awareness of cyber risks but low readiness to do much about it.
“Research shows that business owners are aware of cyber crime, but they are just not prepared – 90% of attacks are still successful due to human error,” says Phil Parisis, general manager, products at the ACSC.
“We often hear from businesses that ‘I’m just a small law firm, a building company, why would anybody target me?’
“The reality is the cyber criminals don’t necessarily target you. Mostly you become an accidental victim of a large, broad-scale phishing attack. Then all it takes is one employee to make a mistake and it triggers an interest in your business.”
As a SME owner myself, I know small businesses have many competing priorities such as providing quality customer service, speedier and more agile processes, cashflow management, recruitment and staff retention – all of which often need to be managed with limited resources.
Murray Goldschmidt, executive director of cyber capability, education, and training at CyberCX, agrees that small businesses typically face competing priorities. Nonetheless, he cautions that “by the time a cyber event has occurred and alarm bells start…
