MailGuard Partners Blog

Earlier this year, I wrote about the need for Australian businesses to step up their efforts in defending themselves from Business Email Compromise (BEC) attacks. 

The end of 2020 is finally approaching. Looking back, it was a tumultuous, yet transformative year in the field of cybersecurity.

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

While launching Microsoft’s Digital Defense Report earlier this year, Tom Burt, Corporate Vice President, Customer Security & Trust succinctly summarised the importance of “shared information and partnerships” in helping businesses remain protected amid a period of heightened cyber risk:  

October is an important month on the cybersecurity calendar as the world marks Cybersecurity Awareness Month (CSAM).

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. 

“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”  

In a year we would all rather forget; an unfortunate side effect has been a rise in ransomware incidents and opportunistic cyber-attacks.

The Zero Trust security model is all the rage these days, with experts calling it “the new cyber game,” one that plays a significant role in securing the new normal.

If a company has been hit by a ransomware attack, should it pay the ransom?