2nd Quarter 2017 Cyber Crime Results
The ACORN or The Australian Cybercrime Online Reporting Network has released the second quarter 2017 cyber crime report to help raise awareness and provide tips for business owners. ACORN offers a place for Australians to report attacks and find advice about the ever evolving digital risk landscape.
An August 2017 report from cyber security firm Webroot surveyed 600 IT leaders from SMEs in Australia, the US and UK to calculate the average business cost resulting from a cyber attack.
In Australia, they estimated the average cost at $1.89 million, half of the Australian respondents to the survey also believe that their business would face costs of more than $1.3 million if customer records or critical business data were lost.
The ACORN has seen an average of 130 reports per day so far this year and an increase of 76 reported events from the first quarter 2017 results. The top form of reported cyber crime continues to be scams and fraud at 51%, this includes ransomware, business email compromise and other forms of email fraud which we wrote about in more depth, Email Fraud & Cyber Insurance.
According to industry reports, 91% of cyber attacks originate with an email and aim to trick or confuse the recipient. Every day a flood of malicious emails are targeted at Australian businesses with evolving tactics and exploits, making it as important as ever to educate staff, update continuity plans and institute a robust security solution. The average interruption to an Australian business from a cyber attack takes 23 days to resolve.
Once again Queensland has reported the most incidents with 28% followed closely by Victoria at 27% and New South Whales at 22%. We can also see a very wide age bracket for attacks with 74% of victims between 20 and 60 years of age. Just as technology doesn’t discriminate with age, neither does cyber crime, these attacks are sent to anyone and everyone. Reports have also increased to 7% for the under 20 year old bracket from the 1st quarter report as mobile & iPad take up among younger generations increases.
At this stage there is no silver bullet to protect your business from cyber crime. Security awareness training for staff, strong Information Security procedures, business continuity plans addressing cyber threats and a well defined cyber insurance policy are the main areas for mitigating cyber crime exposure in your business.
Acorn top three tips for staying safe online
In the event that your business is impacted by a cyber attack, data breach or email scam, cyber insurance is a cost effective way to mitigate the expenses, reputational damage and financial loss.
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Find the full report here – 1 April 2017 to 30 June 2017
If you want to report a cyber crime, verify a current scam or learn prevention tips, please visit: ACORN
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