The Australian Government has now made cyber security incident reporting mandatory for select critical infrastructure sectors, effective from the 8th of April 2022. While a three-month grace period is in place, all assets are strongly encouraged to voluntarily report incidents to the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) from here out.
Although the definition of critical infrastructure assets is quite broad, the full list is covered in the Security of Critical Infrastructure 2018 Act. With 16 total critical infrastructure assets listed, they range from energy businesses to financial services, telco’s, freight, public transport, and food and grocery businesses.
Under the mandate, any critical cyber security incidents that will have a ‘significant impact’ on the availability of assets are required to be reported to the ACSC within 12 hours of the business becoming aware of the issue. If a business opts to inform the ACSC of the incident verbally, they are then required to submit written notice within 84 hours.
For those that are unclear, a significant impact is one where “the incident has materially disrupted the availability of the essential goods or services delivered by a critical infrastructure asset”. Further clarification can be found in the Cyber Security Incident Reporting guide here.
For cyber security incidents that will have a ‘relevant impact’ on the on the “availability, integrity, reliability or confidentiality” of the asset, businesses are still required to notify the ACSC within 72 hours of becoming aware.
If your business has fallen victim to a cyber security incident which will impact your asset, please:
- Call 1300Cyber1 (1300 292 371),
- Submit a report online here,
- Or, call 000 immediately if there is a threat to life or risk of harm.
Although Australian critical infrastructures were regularly targeted by cybercriminals throughout the pandemic, concerns are growing even further in the face of increasing global tensions. Last month, the ACSC called for businesses to step up their cyber preparedness as cybercrime rates continue to rise across the country.
Internationally, nations are also readying themselves, with the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) in the U.S. recommending businesses take a “Shields Up” approach and “adopt a heightened posture when it comes to cybersecurity and protecting their most critical assets”.
The Shields Up initiative offers valuable information and recommendations on how to prepare businesses for cyber incidents.
CISA's advice can be found here, and includes:
- Guidance for all organisations,
- Recommendations for corporate leaders and CEOs,
- Ransomware response,
- Steps to protect yourself and your family, and
- A selection of other resources.
Fortify your defences
No one vendor can stop all threats, so don’t leave your business exposed. If you are using Microsoft 365 or G Suite, you should also have third-party solutions in place to mitigate your risk. For example, using a specialist cloud email security solution like MailGuard to enhance your Microsoft 365 security stack.
For more information about how MailGuard can help defend your inboxes, reach out to our team at expert@mailguard.com.au.
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