The struggle to maintain Australia’s cybersecurity

Powered By

Consider this: a cybersecurity incident impacts Australia’s private or public sector every eight minutes. There’s a cyber attack on Australia’s critical infrastructure every 32 minutes. There were almost 500 ransomware incidents recorded in just one year.

And they are just the reports we know about – experts say the actual rate is much higher.

Government entities and private organisations are under increasing attack from organised criminals, state-based actors and others wanting to inflict digital chaos. They use various techniques to infiltrate organisations and steal data, identities and company secrets or disrupt critical services. Some methods are highly sophisticated; others rely on employees to open digital doors.

This special report looks at the state of cybersecurity in Australia, the industries that are most vulnerable to cyber threats and how authorities are trying to find people with the skills to combat future attacks. It also looks at the next generation of cyber threats – such as ‘deepfakes’, which have the potential to throw our digital-obsessed societies into turmoil.

The cybersecurity challenge is immense, but it’s a battle Australia must win.