Although Australia has been reported as one of the most cybersecure countries in the world, our complacency may be letting us down – according to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, the number of data breach notifications attributed to ransomware attacks increased by more than 150 per cent between January and June 2020 compared to the previous six months.
Historically speaking, hackers tend to target smaller businesses which don’t have adequate resources in place to defend against cyberattacks. However, in the past year alone there have been a multitude of severe cyberattacks conducted against huge corporations, including UnitingCare, Toll Group (twice), Lion and even Nine Entertainment, which managed to completely halt their operations and/or compromise sensitive data information.
Most recently, JBS Foods, the world’s largest meat processing company, was hit by a massive cyberattack in both North America and Australia, resulting in the cancellation of all beef and lamb kills across Australia and disrupting production in up to 47 facilities for up to five days. They were subsequently forced to pay a ransom of over $14 million, which could set a dangerous precedent for future attacks.
And from first-hand experience, even we received a cleverly disguised phishing email just the other day claiming that our website account had been suspended and that we needed to update our billing information – thankfully we have cybersecurity measures in place that detected the dangerous link, and we only then noticed the strange email address it was sent from and small typos in the email body.
It’s amazing the number of companies that think they’re fully protected but still have many vulnerabilities – you might have built a secure fence around your property with a giant padlock, but what if somebody simply dug underneath it?
Former JBS employees claim that JBS allegedly didn’t put cyber as a priority and declined to invest extra into cyber preparedness – a few years later, they have become the latest victim of increasingly commonplace and damaging cyberattacks.
If you think you might need help with a cyber solution for your company, call me on 0417 160 120 or email allan@crisisshield.com.au for a chat on how we can support you.