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Skills shortages, access to critical data, and recovery times are major concerns among government agencies.
A new report, which polled more than 150 IT decision-makers across all levels of government in Australia, has found some worrying trends regarding cyber security readiness.
ASI Solutions’ 2025 Growth and Resiliency Report revealed that almost a quarter of agencies – 74 per cent – are experiencing issues recruiting IT staff, a higher percentage than any other sector in the country.
This workforce challenge is in stark contrast to the sector’s increasing level of investment in AI and cyber security.
Access to critical data was also a major concern, with 85 per cent of respondents admitting they cannot tolerate more than 12 hours without it.
“Public sector leaders face growing pressure to modernise without compromising service continuity,” Nathan Lowe, managing director of ASI Solutions, said in a statement.
“True resilience now depends on people, skills, and systems working together to deliver secure, efficient services that Australians can trust.”
Twenty-three per cent said that recovering from a major incident would take more than a day to manage, while 40 per cent admitted to simply not being fully prepared for the modern threat landscape. With that in mind, 54 per cent of agencies expect to be reshaping their data and IT strategies within the next 24 months.
“Government leaders are taking a pragmatic approach to transformation, balancing innovation with the responsibility to deliver secure, reliable services. Many are adopting hybrid IT and co-managed service models to strengthen recovery readiness and build long-term capability,” Lowe said.
“We’re working closely with government customers to modernise critical systems, enhance cyber security operations, and create more resilient digital environments that enable them to achieve their strategic objectives.”
As to the threats the public sector is most worried about, phishing, social engineering, and account takeover were listed as the most pressing concerns.
The rise of AI in the public sector is another challenge. More than half of the report’s respondents said they expected AI to reshape their workflows and strategies within the next two years; however, most agencies don’t have any formal frameworks in place to direct the use of AI.
Trevor Clarke, chief analyst at Tech Research Asia – which partnered with ASI Solutions on the report – said that technology alone cannot solve these problems.
“I challenge agencies to invest just as much in culture, training, and incident rehearsal as they do in tools and systems,” Clarke said.
“Building genuine resilience means preparing people as well as platforms to anticipate, respond, and recover when it matters most.”
You can read the full report here.
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.
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