Top 10 Most Common Cyber Attacks on Australian Businesses

As society shifts to the digital world the cases of cybercrime acts are on the rise for all companies cutting across Australia. The Australian Government’s Department of Home Affairs has revealed that cybercrime incurred approximately AU$3 billion of direct economic impact on the Australian economy in 2020.

Thus, companies should be aware of the most typical cyber threats to prevent them from compromising the business.

Now, let’s take a look at the Top 10 Most Common Cyber Attacks on Australian Businesses and the strategies used by cybercriminals that need to be avoided.

List of Top 10 Most Common Cyber Attacks on Australian Businesses

So are you excited to know what are the Top 10 Most Common Cyber Attacks on Australian Businesses? Here it is, we have included the top 10 most common cyber attacks with their prevention tip:

1. Phishing Attacks

Phishing does not mention the actual nature of the attack, but rather the attackers like to send fake emails, text messages, or messages of any kind impersonating a known entity like a bank or a widely used online service. The purpose of such scam messages is to apply force incidence to make the recipient reveal the information that was requested, like login details or any other highly sensitive data.

Prevention Tip: Continued employee training on how to spot such phishing emails around can go a long way in preventing such incidences. In the case of authentications, it is recommended that the company ensure that there are measures such as the two-factor authentications in place.

2. Ransomware Attacks

Ransomware can be understood as a form of malware that compromises the files in the victim’s computer and says that it will only release the decryption key if the victim pays the demanded amount. The consequence of this kind of attack can be devastating, and this can paralyze the operation of businesses hence the need to come up with a backup centre for every operation.

Prevention tip: Have a data backup schedule, apply software updates consistently and create a ransomware response plan.

3. BEC Scams which stands for Business Email Compromise Scams

CEOs pretend to be friends with someone in the company and get them to transfer money into a false account. Many of these are scams and use psychological tricks to make their victims believe that the situation is very urgent.

Prevention tip: Cross-check the identity through different channels, raising awareness among the employees about BEC scams, and the procedure for reporting the spam emails.

4. Malware and Viruses

Malware is a broader classification of malicious software that can harm both the computers and the data on them while the virus is a specific type of malware that is created to reproduce itself and spread to other computers. They can be delivered through e-mail attachments, downloads containing viruses or from visits to infected Websites.

Prevention tip: Anti-viral software should be on your computer and software should be updated regularly, do not open spoofs or sites that are unfamiliar to you.

5. Distributed Denial of Services (DDoS) Attacks

DDoS stands for Distributed Denial of Service, this is a malignant attempt at flooding websites and/or networks with traffic to deny users access. This can prove particularly catastrophic for e-commerce firms.

Prevention tip: Contact your Internet Service Provider (ISP) to enable DDoS protection if it has not already been done and consider CDN to offload some of the traffic.

6. Insider Threats

An inside threat is a threat posed by a person who is part of a company and wants to harm that company. Disgruntled employees in the organization may intend to cause harm through cyber activities such as data theft, manipulating critical data to cause harm to the organization or through fraudulent activities.

Prevention tip: Sever access rights, perform periodical security reviews, and control employees’ actions.

7. SQL Injection Attacks

SQL injection attacks are those, which are used to enter unauthorized code into a website’s database to gain access to privileged information. One possible outcome of this security threat type is the unauthorized access of data that is confidential by nature.

Prevention tip: Prepared statements, input validation, and parameterized queries are some of the measures you can take in order to avoid SQL injection.

8. Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) Attacks

XSS attacks presuppose that a hacker inserts any or all of the code into a Website to gain the user’s information or to control the user’s session.

Prevention tip: Sanitize the data entered by a user, employ CSP to specify accepted sources, and integrate a WAF.

9. Eavesdropping Attacks

In eavesdropping attacks, the attacker taps in on sensitive information like user IDs/passwords or other users’ confidential information as they move through the internet channels.

Prevention tip: Firefox, Google Chrome, use HTTPS encryption secure socket layer SSL certificates, and virtual private network VPN.

10. Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs)

APTs are versatile and mostly selective wherein an attacker will use a variety of techniques as a comprehensive attack on an organization, they may use phishing emails, contaminated software and others.

Prevention tip: Hire Incident response plans, do security audits, & use advanced threat detection devices.

Number of Cyberattacks in Australia: Exact Data

Your mind will get blown after knowing the number of cyberattacks in Australia, Excited? , so look into the statistics below:

1. In 2024

As of 2024, the number of cyberattacks in Australia has been significant. The Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) registered a staggering 76,000 cybercrime reports in the latest annual report, marking a substantial increase of nearly 13% compared to the previous fiscal year. 

Additionally, the Australian Signals Directorate’s (ASD) Cyber Threat Report for 2022-2023 mentioned that over 94,000 reports of cybercrime were received over the financial year, which is an increase of 23% from 2021-222.

2. In 2020

The Australian Cyber-security Centre (ACSC) recorded an average of 447 cybercrime reports every day – a 15 per cent increase on 2019 figures.

The ACSC recorded 164,533 cybercrime complaints for the year 2020 in which 55% of the complaints were of fraud. 

The mean loss resulting from a cyber attack in Australia was estimated at AU$276,000.

3. In 2019

Australians endured 60,000 cyber attacks daily, varying from 20-21. an average of 9 million attacks per year.

The ACSC recorded 131,506 cybercrime incidents in 2019, of which fraud was 44% of the cases reported. 

A report shows that cyber threats and breaches had dealt the Australian economy a blow which is equivalent to AU$4.3 billion in 2019. the key objective was to identify how cybersecurity factors impacted Australia’s economy and society.

4. In 2018

It was approximated that the number of cyber attacks per day in Australia was 44,000 implying that it was around 16. The total number of cases of attack is estimated to be at one million per year.

The ACSC recorded 47,000 cyber attacks in 2018 with 39% of these being on the crime of fraud. 

Terminating cyber threats decreased AU$2.5 billion in 2018.

5. In 2017

In Australia daily there were 32 thousand cyber attacks, which is 11 attacks per hour. 7000 attacks per year. 

The ACSC detailed 24,000 cybercrime incidences in 2017 and of these, fraud accounted for 34 percent. 

Cyber security threats were estimated to have inflicted AU$ 1.4 billion in 2017. 

How to be Secure from Cyber attacks on  Australian Businesses?

Here are some measures Australian businesses can take to protect themselves from cyber attacks:

1. Implement Strong Passwords and Authentication

As for the methods of protection, one should apply a combination of passwords, passphrases, and multiple-factor authentication. Passwords should be updated and changed very often.

2. Keep Software and Systems Up-to-Date

Ensure systems are up to date by applying the latest patches on operating systems, applications and plug-ins, to close known security holes. Here, applying tools such as patch management tools to help in the simplified application of patches can be used.

3. Use Encryption

There must be an implementation of security that assures confidentiality of the data to and fro the servers (e.g., HTTPS) as well as storage (e.g., encrypted databases).

Implement the transmission security protocols such as Secure Socket Layer (SSL)/Transport Layer Security (TLS).

4. Conduct Regular Security Audits and Penetration Testing

Coming up with a timetable to do security audits often. Conduct vulnerability assessments that require emulating an attacker to establish the organization’s weak points.

5. Implement a Cyber Security Policy

Set pertinent rules and guidelines in protecting cyber-space by creating a security policy for security measures, rules, and other standard operating procedures. It is important to make sure all employees understand their individual responsibilities in supporting cybersecurity.

Summary

Here is the summary of this blog titled “Top 10 Most Common Cyber Attacks on Australian Businesses“

1. Phishing Attacks
2. Ransomware Attacks
3. BEC Scams which stands for Business Email Compromise Scams
4. Malware and Viruses
5. Distributed Denial of Services (DDoS) Attacks
6. Insider Threats
7. SQL Injection Attacks
8. Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) Attacks
9. Eavesdropping Attacks
10. Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs)

Conclusion

Finally, we have reached the end of this blog. We hope that you found it informational. Our aim with this blog was to give you exact information on all the top 10 most common cyber attacks on Businesses in Australia these days.

Because if you are a business owner then knowing such information is paramount to keeping your business safe in this digital jungle.

If you are interested in getting started with improving your business cybersecurity posture then contact us.

FAQs: Top 10 Most Common Cyber Attacks on Australian Businesses