MailGuard Blog

‘Alone we will fail,’ was the message from Alastair MacGibbon, Head of the Australian Cyber Security Centre and keynote speaker at MailGuard’s2018 Cybersecurity Awareness Luncheon.

On Tuesday 6 March, MailGuard collaborated with PWC and Microsoft to bring together CEOs and cybersecurity experts in a forum focussed on the rise of cybercrime and the challenges it presents for business.

Cybercrime and data-security are a growing challenge here in Australia. The Australian Government recently published figures estimating that cybercrime costs our economy about AU$1 billion annually and if the international trends are anything to go by, that figure will be growing rapidly over the next few years.

These are interesting times to be in business. The fastest pace of industrial development in history. Huge opportunities. Huge risks. An economic environment that rewards innovation but is also incredibly volatile.

“During the holiday season, it's easy to forget that sometimes the best gift of all is simply the gift of time.” - Kate Klise - author and journalist.

I’ve just come back from a holiday break with my family. It was a welcome opportunity to focus on my loved ones, but it also gave me some time for reflection.

One of the biggest challenges we face dealing with cybersecurity is the way it’s perceived as an IT issue. The reality is that cybercrime exploits gaps in security at every level. Criminals use every means available to them to penetrate a company’s defences: telephone calls; fake documents; and identity theft.

There’s a striking cybercrime case in the headlines this week involving email fraud.

John Kahlbetzer - one of the richest people in Australia according to Forbes - lost AU$1 million in a scam that was as simple as it was effective.

The shocking news about Uber’s data breach woes just keeps on coming. After reading Stephen Little’s Independent article ‘Uber data leak hit 2.7m UK customers’ I felt compelled to break my silence on this issue.

I don’t like to heap criticism on an already embattled company, but the latest revelations about Uber’s unethical behaviour has made them fair game for critique, I think. Uber’s handling of their ongoing cybercrime crisis has landed them in a situation where they are now dealing with a legal battle and a public relations meltdown as well.

Here's a roundup of this weeks articles on the MailGuard Blog. It's been a busy week here, especially for our CEO Craig McDonald, who managed to fit a mentoring workshop and a leadership interview with Prof. Gary Martin into his schedule...

I’ve received a number of messages on LinkedIn over the last 24 hours that rang alarm bells. At first glance they looked like ordinary notes from my contacts, but then I noticed they were all asking me to click on an unfamiliar link

Free Webinar from Microsoft

Cybercrime is impacting 9 out of 10 businesses. According to a recent study by PwC, it is the number one economic crime in Australia, and number two globally. This is a risk management challenge of huge proportions.

An Interview with Prof. Gary Martin of AIM WA

I recently spoke at a leadership forum organised by the Australian Institute of Management, Western Australia (AIM WA). In my talk, I invited the audience to consider the real and immediate threat that cybercrime poses to business, not only in terms of potential losses but at the level where it can be a threat to a company’s very existence.

Following-up on the AIM WA forum I interviewed Professor Gary Martin. Gary is CEO and Executive Director of AIM WA, and is hands-on in making their forums happen.

The most profitable time of year for retailers is right now - between the North American ‘Thanksgiving’ and new-year. When business is booming, cybercriminals are busy too. The holiday season creates a perfect storm for criminals. Retail companies are doing billions in transactions and during the silly season there’s more work to do during the same hours. Everyone is overworked and under pressure, which is the perfect environment for scams to be executed.

Today, Craig McDonald - CEO and Founder of MailGuard - hosted a Q and A session for Cyrise program participants at the MailGuard offices in Melbourne.

Cyrise is a venture accelerator focused on facilitating the development of Asia-Pacific based cybersecurity startups. Cyrise runs 6 month mentor-driven programs in Melbourne.

Over the years, working with people in the cybersecurity field and talking to them about their experiences I’ve heard some hair-raising stories.

Last year I was at a business leaders conference in Singapore, and I got talking to a guy who had learned the hard way how destructive cybercrime can be.

It's been a non-stop week at MailGuard with multiple brandjacking, phishing and malware scams detected and blocked by our threat detection engines.

Our CEO, Craig McDonald wrote an insightful article for the blog on Monday explaining the potential impact of the new EU's GDPR regime. Craig will be speaking at the Australian Institute of Management (AIM) Western Australia next week, discussing the challenges cybersecurity presents to business leaders.