HERE ARE 10 OF THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW WHEN IT COMES TO CYBERCRIME.

• 2.51 was the average cost of a data breach in Australia in 2017. This was based on a study of 25 breaches by the Ponemon Institute. The breaches ranged from $0.89 Million for a breach of less than 10,000 records and up to 6.65 million for a breach up to 50,000 records with the average cost per record being $139.

• 47,000 cyber-attacks were recorded by the Australian Cyber Security Centre in 2016-2017.
More than half of these were malicious or fraud attacks affecting 7283 businesses and 734 notable private sector organisations.

• Business losses from malicious emails doubled in the 2016-17 period with losses of more than 20 million dollars reported to the ACSC.

• 90% of businesses have been exposed to a data breach or threat and 58% have been compromised at least once.

• 24% of companies experience ransomware attacks each month taking an average of 5 hours to resolve not to mention the costs related to downtime.

• Symantec report Australia is in the top 10 targeted countries for ransomware attacks which means you need to be extra vigilant about preventing and avoiding your business being targeted.

• Cybercriminals are getting savvy – Phishing emails are evolving and becoming more sophisticated, intercepting and replicating invoices for existing services and payment arrangements. This can make it tricky for employees to pick up.

• Cybersecurity jobs are tripling in response to the surge of attacks with an expected number of 3.5 million jobs in the field by 2021. All IT positions now require a certain level of security expertise.

• New data breach laws were introduced to Australia in February this year in order to improve protection for personal and sensitive information and to create greater transparency.

• It is predicted cybercrime will cost US $6 Trillion dollars worldwide by 2021, according to Cyber Security Ventures. This is based on the projected increase in organised cybercrime and foreign government activities.

To find out more on how you can safeguard your business against cybercrime contact the team at Netlogyx.