Vast Majority of Australian Companies Believe Their Cybersecurity Is Failing

Australian companies don’t trust their current cybersecurity solution and overwhelmingly think their investments in this critical business are failing, according to a new survey of executives in all major industries. 

Cybersecurity has become a necessary investment for any company; simply put, it’s impossible to conduct any kind of business in today’s online world without investing heavily in cybersecurity. The problem is that many executives believe their investments are failing to produce the expected results. 

A recent Accenture survey (included in the State of Cybersecurity Report 2020) in Australia found that 80% of companies have serious doubts about the efficacy of their cybersecurity investments, especially given that the country registered a 50% increase in the number of breaches from 2018 to 2019. 

The survey covered 373 Australian security executives across all industries. 70% said their companies are in a constant battle to stay ahead of attackers and their methods, which is driving expenses out of control. 

“Now, more than ever, cybersecurity is an increasing challenge for Australian organizations, as the prevalence of sophisticated and insidious cyber-attacks continues to grow,” says Accenture A/NZ security lead Joseph Failla. “Organizations are grappling with the new and sudden reality of COVID-19, which is putting even greater strain on their already under-pressure security systems.” 

The survey also found that cybersecurity costs increased in the last year, with 11% of respondents saying costs rose as much as 25%. Only 43% of the companies believe they are proactively protected by the cybersecurity solutions contracted. 

The survey also found more positive indicators. For example, 58% of the breaches are identified by the security team, 38% of the breaches do not affect the targeted organizations, and 71% of all breaches were found and fixed in less than 15 days. 

Australian companies have been hit hard by cyberattacks, but the Toll attacks stand out. Toll is a multi-national transportation company that operates in 50 countries, but it’s based in Australia. The conglomerate was hit not once, but twice by ransomware attacks in just six months.