New research has revealed Australia’s ranking when it comes to maintaining cyber resilience, and if the Australian government’s pledge to make the country the most secure in the world by 2030, we have some serious work to do.
According to Check Point’s January 2026 cyber security innovations report, Australia does make it into the top ten – out of a pool of 38 countries – but languishes far below the current title-holder, Singapore, at eighth place, scraping past Spain and Sweden.
Check Point’s methodology tracks several metrics overall: Technical capability, scored out of 20, and long-term skills building & cyber-related laws, also both measured out of a top score of 20, and employed cybersecurity professionals per 100,000 people is another metric. Cooperation measures and national strategies also score out of 20, while digital development level is tracked out of 100.
The datapoints are then converted to a total out of 100, with Singapore scoring an impressive score of 99. Check Point ranks both Singapore’s capability and legal status as scoring a perfect 20, while its 1,329 professionals per 100,000 individuals deliver another perfect score.
Only its skills-building lets it down from a perfect score overall, but only by a whisker – it scored 19.8 out of 20.
By comparison, Australia’s technical score was 19.95, and its skills-building efforts were ranked at a relatively positive 19.44. What let the nation down was a relatively low 541 professionals per 100,000 of the population, alongside the lowest cooperation measures rating of all ten countries, 18.85.
Finland, Estonia, Denmark, and the United Kingdom round out the top five, followed by the United States, the Netherlands, and then Australia, Spain, and Sweden.
“A strong job market for cyber security professionals is a solid national strategy,” a Check Point spokesperson said in a statement.
The industry needs around four million specialists more just to match the current demand, and countries like Singapore and Estonia figured out years ago that you can't just train people after a breach happens.
“Building cyber-resilience means investing in education pipelines, creating thousands of specialised jobs, and making sure your legal frameworks can actually keep up with how fast threats evolve.”
You can read the full report and its findings here.
David Hollingworth
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.