The last decade has been rife with incidents of data theft and security breaches that have compromised millions of individuals and businesses. Another fact to note is that Australia has not been immune to security threats and data breaches. In 2021 alone we have had 1051 notifiable data breaches across the whole of Australia. That is an average of around 90 notifiable breaches a month!
The above number represents the number of incidents that fall within the Notifiable Data Breaches Scheme (NBS). The actual number of data breaches in comparison to the ones that were brought to the notice of the OAIC is roughly estimated to be over 100 times the above number!
Let us look at some of the major incidents in Australia in over the last couple of years:
- The NOVA data breach occurred where more than 250K listeners had their personal information including dates of birth and addresses disclosed.
- CANVA, the Sydney-based graphic design startup, was hacked and data for 139 million users was taken during the breach. The infamous hacker who did this also hacked 43 other companies and put data from 932 million users for sale on the dark web.
- LandMark White, an independent valuer of home loans, suffered serious loss of income and almost went bankrupt when a hacker disclosed 137,500 documents on the dark web.
Did you know that more than 63% of confirmed data breaches are due to weak, default or stolen passwords?
Think twice before using the same password across multiple online services.
So what can you do to safeguard your business’s future. The 2 key ingredients in a cybersecurity strategy are prevention and speedy action. You should invest in robust threat prevention solutions to protect your endpoint devices (PCs, laptops, smartphones), protect your network with a NextGen Firewall, ensure your staff who are working from home have secure access to confidential data and also provide cyber awareness training to your staff so that they don’t fall prey to phishing and sophisticated social engineering scams.
Seems like a lot doesn’t it. The reality is that 2021 and beyond will see a rapid escalation in malicious attacks and data theft by cybercriminals and state-actors on a scale never seen before. You need to educate yourself, periodically review your security policy and ensure that you protect your staff, your clients and your business.
What does this all have to do with scanning the dark web, I hear you asking?
When your data is stolen, cybercriminals typically sell it to other bad actors by auctioning it off on the dark web. A service which constantly MONITORS the dark web to prevent cyber crime is crucial. Real time scanning and alerting allows you to apply remedies and minimize the damage.
Just send us your work email address and we will run a scan on the dark web, showing you all compromised credentials in your business. We will also give you helpful advise on how to secure your business.
- Australian computer Society. ia.acs.org.au/article/2021/australia-had-1051-data-breaches-in-2021.html
- novaentertainment.com.au/dataincident
- zdnet.com/article/australian-tech-unicorn-canva-suffers-security-breach
- NBS, Notifiable Data Breaches Scheme which mandates that organisations and government agencies that collect private data musty notify all the people affected and also the Office of the Australian Information Commission (OAIC), whenever a data breach occurs.