MailGuard Blog

In a year gutted by a worldwide pandemic, the 2020 year-end holiday and shopping season will be unlike any other.

Neil Stephenson imagined a meta-verse in his 1992 novel, Snow Crash. A vision of an interactive computer-generated reality or virtual world. A fully immersive persistent experience that we are all plugged into. Maybe we’re not there yet, but we are far closer today than we were pre-pandemic, and it’s a scary peak into the future power that cyber villains may wield.

It’s October again, an important month on the cybersecurity calendar as the world marks Cybersecurity Awareness Month (CSAM).

“Service NSW confirms 180,000 customers' personal details exposed in cyber security breach” 
“A cyber-crime is reported every ten minutes in Australia” 
“NAB flags cyber-attacks during the pandemic have intensified” 

Suzanne Collins, author of the famous trilogy, The Hunger Games, once wrote: “For there to be betrayal, there would have to have been trust first.”  

In a year we would all rather forget; an unfortunate side effect has been a rise in ransomware incidents and opportunistic cyber-attacks. Our current situation has been unexpectedly thrust upon us, forcing a rapid change to our ways of working, and a more vulnerable remote workforce. One positive that’s close to my own heart though, is a growing awareness of cybercrime, and a shared responsibility across the entire organisation from the Board and the CEO, through to the front line, to boost cyber resilience.

If your company has been hit by a ransomware attack, would you pay the ransom?  

This week marks Scams Awareness Week, an annual national public awareness campaign by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) dedicated to reducing the impact of cyber scams in Australia. This year, the campaign aims to shine a light on the dangers of threat-based impersonation scams and to empower people to protect their personal and financial information.

Office 365 users are prime targets of criminal-intent email threats, and this continues to be reinforced by recent reports of massive phishing campaigns threatening to cause catastrophic damage to businesses.

Why are some business owners still not paying attention and underestimating a real business risk? A staggering 80% of Australian companies believe their cybersecurity investments are ‘failing’.

“In a year already marred by natural and biological crises, cybersecurity failures remain a critical threat. 

Tax refunds supposedly from national taxation bodies. Requests to verify accounts from well-known banks via a link. Attachments containing delayed invoices from suppliers. 

“I am a hacker who has access to your operating system. I also have full access to your account. I’ve been watching you for a few months now. The fact is that you were impacted with malware through an adult site that you visited.”

In its report to Parliament in March, the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) stated that “Commonwealth entities continue to improve their cyber security; however, ongoing effort is required to maintain the currency and effectiveness of cyber security measures.

It’s been several weeks since many companies (mine included) implemented a remote working policy to keep our employees safe in light of the evolving COVID-19 situation.