Australia's new national cyber security policy

With online activity and transactions become the norm, cyber-fraud instances are booming and becoming increasingly complex.

A recent KPMG report indicates that the total value of fraud cases brought before the Australian courts between April-September 2015 was $128.4 million, averaging $1.4 million per case.

This is an alarming cost to Australian organisations and as the methodologies employed by fraudsters continue to increase in sophistication, organisations need to constantly stay ahead.

It is clearly vital we all collectively remain attentive and adopt effective tools to address fraud prevention.

A positive and long-awaited advancement will be released in the coming few weeks – Australia's first new national cyber security policy since 2009.

An article with iTnews states key pillars addresses in the policy which are intended to help Australia grow by embracing disruptive technologies from a secure footing in all areas of the economy:

“The document outlines five key areas: strengthening cyber defences, education, partnerships, research and development, and awareness, containing a total of around 19 specific initiatives.”

Government discloses that they will be reliant on private to ensure that substantial technology and systems are in place to forgo the chance of a cyber-attack. Also, threat centres will be established including real-time, online information sharing portal to help produce data and advice for organisations to improve their security measures.

“To harden Australia's networks and systems to compromise and make them resilient to attack, joint public-private sector threat centres will be established in "key" capital cities to share information on threats quickly, the policy states.”

“The private sector will also be asked to help design voluntary cyber security guidelines that outline good practice, alongside "health checks" for cyber security governance that boards and senior management can use to compare their infosec defences to others.” Full iTnews article on the new policy here.

The government also discusses inclusion in the policy on building-out cyber security measures into the Indo-Pacific region and creating partnerships to help prevent and stop malicious cyber activity – plus boosting the government’s cyber skills and increasing the number of skilled cyber security specialists.

“The government also plans to quantify the cost of cyber-attacks to the Australian economy, with the help of the private sector. The figure most often quoted is Symantec's estimate of $1 billion a year.”

Following the increase of fraudulent activity and cybercrime incidents, public and privates must take appropriate measures to protect your organisation against these emerging fraud trends.

Want more on preventing, detecting and responding to fraud?

Join your colleagues and peers at the upcoming 5^th Annual Australian Fraud Summit, 24^th and 25^th May 2016 in Sydney, to discuss all things fighting cyber and internal fraud in a technology dependent era.

After finishing University with a degree in Business Marketing, I decided to make a big jump across seas for the first time and move from the east coast of America to Sydney, Australia. I landed my first job in a sales position in the event industry and soon thereafter moved into a marketing assistant role – following I had the pleasure of interviewing with Akolade which got me to where I am today.

Akolade is a fun, innovative company that brings together people from different walks of life to implement change. As the Marketing Manager, I have the pleasure of wearing many hats which motivates me to succeed, reach people in an array of avenues, grow our events to their full potential, and raise our story. As for me, I am a kind dedicated woman who loves to work hard, exercise, cook, be social and have some fun.