The Future of Cyber Security in Australia

Due to the rise of remote working in combination with efforts from multiple businesses to acquire more customers and boost sales through online channels, the digitisation of just about every business process is becoming inevitable.

Businesses have to adjust to the exponentially increasing data exchanges, meet human expectations of enhanced user experiences, achieve seamless global connections and transformed supply chains.

This creates new loopholes in business systems, posing future challenges of cybersecurity. It’s estimated that cybercrime results in roughly $300 million in losses every year in Australia.

The Australian Government plans to invest $1.67 billion towards building new cybersecurity and law enforcement capabilities in their 2020 Cyber Security Strategy. However, they’ve made it clear that businesses are responsible for securing their own products and services and protecting their customers from vulnerabilities.

Let’s take a look at some areas that may draw considerable attention when it comes to the future of cybersecurity in Australia:

Phishing Emails

In the near future, many businesses will have scenarios where a multitude of instructions are sent from one employee to another in disparate parts of the world.

Emails pertaining to emergency fund transfers, reactivating dormant accounts, downloading work documents and software updates are all ways in which phishers can get employees to follow malicious links and give access to unauthorized actors.

Employees should be taken through educational programs/activities that enable them to identify suspicious messages. Businesses should also restrict access based on IP addresses, limit password validity periods and use multi-factor authentication amongst other measures.

Cloud Jacking

This is a type of cloud system breach where the attacker uses already prepared scripts to take over a business’ cloud infrastructure without having to be proficient at cyber attacks.

The scope of these attacks covers botnets and other malware, commonly conveyed through malicious emails to gain credentials of cloud business accounts on AWS (Amazon Web Services) and other platforms.

Some attackers simply want free cloud services while others may aim to steal sensitive data and disrupt vital applications.

Remember that cloud jacking isn’t limited to public cloud services, which is why businesses using private cloud or some other multi-cloud setup should look into top-notch solutions like Cloudflare security features.

AI-powered Attacks

In the future, there will be a rise in adoption of numerous forms of automation or AI-driven tools to mimic human behaviour, whether it is sending messages, logging into accounts or visiting websites.

Machine learning techniques and other AI-enabled countermeasures to spot patterns and block suspicious traffic and other AI-related cyber attacks, sound nice in theory, but the reality is they’ll probably also be on the other side aiding smarter attacks.

This is why it’s imperative that we continually implement, adapt, and improve security strategies, with specialist knowledge.

Coronavirus Cons

2020 saw maneuvers such as face-mask scams and false contact-tracing requests among others, where cybercriminals attempted to capitalize on the misinformation surrounding COVID-19.

With the pandemic nowhere near its end, we could see a new wave of attacks targeting people who seek guidance about vaccination and other SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) related to COVID-19.

Businesses should keep a catalogue of all health and government agency websites, helplines, seals/symbols and other pieces of information that help to identify relevant authorities on COVID-19 matters.

This will enable them to easily distinguish between legitimate communication and false messages and channels.

Skills And Personnel Gaps

With increasing demand for cybersecurity experts, businesses across various industries may fall victim to the scarcity created.

Small and medium-sized businesses could face challenges implementing their own cyber security measures due to a lack of dedicated security staff, complexities with understanding the field of cyber security and implementing security measures, or underestimating the risks of a cyber attack.

Lots of businesses will have to try and outsource more personnel or even train existing team members on the basic practices that protect business data and networks from cyber attacks.

Advanced Ransomware

For businesses in fields like healthcare that handle sensitive customer data, or any business that is privy to customer payment information, it is crucial to have a robust backup and recovery plan.

This is in addition to making sure that system breaches that usually result in data leaks are diffused by encryption and other permission-related measures.

In regard to the future of cybersecurity data, there will be more threats outside what is mentioned above, with some arising from 5G security loopholes and advances in quantum computing, among other trends.

This is why businesses should team up with I.T. service providers like Deployus that have partnerships with leading security providers like Palo Alto, Duo and Veeam along with the know-how to make sure your business is continually protected.

Deployus also provides education to business owners and employees around their own day-to-day practices and how the implemented security procedures work.