Australians are reporting one cybercrime every seven minutes, as the volume of cybercrime hits “profound and new” levels.
Abigail Bradshaw, the head of the Australian Cyber Security Centre, said reports during the last financial year increased 13 per cent, to 76,000.
“In the last 12 months, we witnessed this sustained integration of cyber with conventional warfare in Ukraine, and the coalescence of powerful and disruptive cybercrime, gangs and nation states combining efforts in that conflict,” Bradshaw said.
“That has been profound and new.”
ACSC’s Annual Cyber Threat Report found that during the 21/22 financial year, there was:
- An increase in financial losses due to BEC to over $98 million
- An average loss of $64,000 per report.
- A rise in the average cost per cybercrime report to over $39,000 for small business, $88,000 for medium business, and over $62,000 for large business
- An average increase of 14 per cent.
- A 25 per cent increase in the number of publicly reported software vulnerabilities worldwide.
- Over 76,000 cybercrime reports
- An increase of 13 per cent from the previous financial year.
- Over 25,000 calls to the Cyber Security Hotline
- An average of 69 per day and an increase of 15 per cent from the previous financial year.
- 150,000 to 200,000 Small Office/Home Office routers in Australian homes and small businesses vulnerable to compromise including by state actors.
Fraud accounted for 27 per cent of all reports. Online shopping and online banking make up 14 and 13 per cent, respectively.
Last week, a spokeswoman for the Federal Police advised against ever paying a ransom if hacked.
“The Australian government does not condone ransom payments being made to cyber criminals … Any ransom payment, small or large, fuels the ransomware business model, putting other Australians at risk,” she said.
“Paying ransoms does not guarantee access to locked systems or sensitive data, and may open the victim up to repeat attacks. We need to ensure that Australia remains an unattractive target for criminals and a hostile place for them to operate.”
