Cyber Attacks and your business

Whilst coronavirus has been a recurring theme in the news of 2020, so too has high level data breaches and cyber-attacks. For many of us, these types of news stories are as frightening as they are seemingly distant from our day-to-day lives.  

However, these threats do serve as a timely reminder of the dangers of letting privacy stray too far from your mind and priority list. The ACSC has reported that between July 2019 and June 2020, there have been 59,806 cybercrime reports to their ReportCyber reporting tool.  

With large scale migrations of workforces to virtual models this year there has never been a better time to take some important steps to make cyber security a priority.  

How does this affect your business? 

It can be understandably difficult to relate sensational cyber-attacks seen on the news to small or medium sized businesses and their circumstances. It makes sense that risks for small businesses and individuals may look different to those that dominate the news and make headlines.  

For smaller businesses, privacy risks may lie in the way they conduct business, such as their use of cloud-based systems for accounting and payroll as well as data management (or lack thereof). While your business may not be a direct target of cybercrime or hacks, your providers might. 

Responsible management of sensitive data, whether it is client or business data, also necessitates the proper frameworks and protocols are in place. According to Symantec, in 2018, the top three cybercrimes experienced by Australians were unauthorised bank access, malicious software, and unauthorised email access. 

With so many businesses shifting en masse to working from home and virtual offices, the way data is handled can become even more of a challenge. Use of email, file management, and even physical considerations can all trigger cyber safety issues.  

Not to mention the prevalence of coronavirus related scams that have begun cropping up. Between 10 and 26 March 2020, the ACSC has received over 45 covid-19 related cybercrime and cyber security incident reports, notwithstanding the over 100 reports of COVID-19 themed scams received by the ACCC. 

Privacy and Cyber Security has been a focus area of Certex International for many years now. This is a growing area of risk as more sensitive information is being collected than ever before and the consequences and penalties for non-compliance is high. Certex provides various solutions and support services to assist you in preparing an effective data management system. Our iPrivacy Program was designed to you can feel confident in your data security approach.