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Recent data released by Australian law firm Maddocks has revealed that cyber security is the largest perceived vulnerability facing Australian businesses.
A recent report detailing industry concerns on operational risk has revealed that cyber security remains a top-of-mind worry for Australian businesses.
Surveying over 400 organisations, Maddocks’ Risk, Regulation & Resilience: Managing risk during an age of volatility questioned respondents on their exposure to organisational vulnerabilities.
Sixty-eight per cent of the participants detailed that cyber security was a key risk to their organisation, with the exposure felt more acutely among government employees and the education sector, with 87 per cent and 81 per cent providing positive responses, respectively.
Additionally, 50 per cent of organisations with over 500 employees identified aging IT infrastructure as a key regulatory and security risk.
According to the Maddocks survey, aging IT systems can prove risky for businesses, with older infrastructure not having the required security systems and patches to protect users from online criminals. They are also unlikely to meet industry-specific compliance requirements.
Over one in four government and healthcare respondents expressed worry over aging IT infrastructure.
Other key areas of concern included employee risk (50 per cent), reputation (37 per cent), regulatory (34 per cent) and economic (30 per cent).
Michelle Dixon, co-author and partner at Maddocks, explained that many of these vulnerabilities – including cyber security – require proactivity on behalf of the company.
“Unsurprisingly, risks from cyber attacks, employee risks, reputational management, and regulation compliance are causing business the most concern, and need to be proactively managed,” Dixon explained.
“Many organisations are well prepared to manage an incident; however, budget constraints and a lack of crisis management planning remain a problem for many.”
The report is evidence of the need for robust operational processes, co-author and Maddocks partner Catherine Dunlop added.
“Organisations may not be able to prevent a crisis, but they can make their position much worse if they don’t have robust response and consequence management plans and procedures in place – and have practised those plans.
“Many of the decisions made in the aftermath of a crisis are irreversible and can have a long lag time, so it’s vital that businesses have plans in place that can mitigate harm, demonstrate leadership and protect their staff.”
Liam Garman is the editor of leading Australian security and defence publications Cyber Daily and Defence Connect.
Liam began his career as a speech writer at New South Wales Parliament before working for world leading campaigns and research agencies in Sydney and Auckland. Throughout his career, Liam has managed and executed a range of international media and communications campaigns spanning politics, business, industrial relations and infrastructure. He’s since shifted his attention to researching and writing extensively on geopolitics and defence, specifically in North Africa, the Middle East and Asia. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Sydney and a Masters of Strategy and Security from UNSW Canberra, with a thesis on postmodernism and disinformation operations.
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