Four in 10 Australian organisations experience increase in ransomware attacks

Four in 10 Australian organisations experience increase in ransomware attacks | Insurance Business Australia

Cyber

Four in 10 Australian organisations experience increase in ransomware attacks

Report reveals latest cyber challenges facing organisations

Cyber

By
Roxanne Libatique

Four in 10 organisations (43%) have experienced an increase in ransomware attacks, according to the 2023 Thales Data Threat Report.

The report found that over a third of Australian organisations (36%) experienced a data breach in the last 12 months.

Among the IT professionals surveyed, 45% claimed that security threats have increased in volume or severity. While half of the respondents (51%) had a formal ransomware plan in place, a quarter (24%) admitted they have paid or would pay a ransom.

Moreover, nearly one in five (17%) Australian organisations claimed that the disclosure of sensitive information through exfiltration has become the greatest impact of ransomware attacks.

Top cyber concerns

Three quarters of Australian organisations (75%) were worried about 5G network security threats, with seven in 10 (72%) being most concerned about the security data moving across the 5G network.

“As 5G becomes increasingly vital to the running of our manufacturing, transport, energy sectors, and more, it will create a tsunami of sensitive data. Half of Australian organisations believe security threats increased over the past year and the ongoing deployment of 5G will only serve to intensify the threat landscape,” said Brian Grant, ANZ director, Thales Cloud Security.

The respondents identified their cloud assets as the main target of cyberattacks, with nearly half (48%) deeming cloud-hosted apps and data in motion the main targets – a problem exacerbated by seven in 10 (72%) organisations using SaaS applications and one in five (19%) using over 100.

As a result, a third of organisations are focused on investing into securing data in transit (33%), followed by data at rest (28%) and data in use (28%).

“Organisations are right to be concerned about their data. The growth and success of a business today relies as much on good data security as on safeguarding its cash flow. Encrypting and securing data in use, in transit, and at rest will not only help future proof against the proliferation of 5G, but also [help] the tightening of privacy and sovereignty regulations across the world,” Grant said.