Australia’s largest cause of data breaches is phishing attacks, a recent report shows.
Massachusetts security firm Carbon Black released its 2nd Australian Threat Report, which surveys 250 CIOs, CTOs and CISOs in Australia.
The report goes on to detail that 97% of organisations in Australia confirmed at least one successful data breach in the past 12 months, significantly higher than the UK’s 84%. It also confirmed 90% of Australian organisations reported an increase in overall attack volume in the last 12 months.
While 86 percent of the firms believed they were more confident in their ability to repel cyber attacks than they were 12 months ago, 89% also believed that cyber attacks were growing significantly more sophisticated. Further concerns were found around digital transformation projects and the rolling out of 5G networks, concerns that were expressed by 98% of the organisations.
To keep up with the accelerating technological arms-race, 96% of the firms said they planned to increase security budgets over the next 12 months.
Phishing attacks were the main cause of security breaches, the report showed.
This is further confirmation that cyber criminals continue to focus their attacks on the weakest link in the security chain, end-users.
As we analyse the findings of our second Australian Threat Report, it appears organisations are adjusting to the ‘new normal’ of sustained and sophisticated cyberattacks, greater awareness of external threats and compliance risks have also prompted organisations to become more proactive about managing cyber risks as they witness the financial and reputational impacts that breaches entail.
Rick McElroy – Head of security strategy, Carbon Black
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