NAB has partnered with Microsoft to deliver a free cyber assessment tool to help Aussie small businesses prepare for and bounce back from a cyber attack.
The free, tailored, self-assessment – available for all Australian businesses from today – takes under two hours and asks participants a series of questions about their organisation’s security, data and IT environment. The data findings and answers are used to provide participants with tailored, fact-based advice on how to improve cybersecurity for their business.
NAB Chief Security Officer, Sandro Bucchianeri, said the tool can help small businesses determine their cyber maturity today and make better informed decisions to protect their business, employees and customers in the future.
“The number of cyber attacks impacting small businesses continues to grow each year. Last financial year, a cyber crime was reported every six minutes and cost small to medium businesses an average of $71,600, according to the latest research by the Australian Signals Directorate, with incidents surging 23 percent,” Mr Bucchianeri said.
“As we’ve seen over recent weeks, cyber criminals are stepping up their tactics, targeting high profile Australian businesses on a near-daily basis, impacting everyone from our hospital system, legal system and business community. Tools like this will help the small business sector respond if they are caught up in a hack.”
Mr Bucchianeri said that as we head into the new year, cyber criminals are looking for new ways to reach new victims.
“We’re seeing an increase in phishing scams and ransomware which all continue to be among the top cyber threats that NAB customers report, as well as issues we see across industry,” Mr Bucchianeri said.
NAB’s Consumer and Business Insights research on scams education indicates that small and medium businesses (SMEs) are one of the least cyber prepared sectors, with just 15% percent conducting extensive training around scams and cyber security risks. Four in 10 had “not much training at all”.
“The Government’s recent cyber security strategy announcement rightly places small businesses at the centre of its efforts. We all need to work together to help shift small businesses from one of the least prepared sectors in the country, to the most capable and resilient community group.
“Roughly 97% of all Australian businesses are small businesses so they need to be our number one priority to achieving national cyber resilience,” Mr Bucchianeri said.
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