“More Australians are being targeted for espionage and foreign interference than at any time in the nation’s history, undermining our country’s digital resilience and economic competitiveness”, according to a statement from CREST ANZ Chair, David McEwen.

McEwen referred to the recent explosion of incident response ‘call outs’ involving CREST ANZ members, as well as comments from Australia’s Home Affairs Minister, Clare O’Neil, regarding a potential ‘dystopian’ future in which increasingly digitally connected cities may be “held hostage through interference in everything from traffic lights to surgery schedules”.

McEwen applauded the Minister’s comments regarding recent Medibank, Optus and Latitude data breaches, described by the Minister as the “tip of the iceberg”.  In response to the Minister’s calling-out of state-sponsored attackers as today’s “apex predators”, financially motivated cyber actors and extortionists described as “public enemy number one”, McEwen commented, “Cyber-attacks can take many forms, including phishing scams, ransomware attacks, and data breaches. These attacks can be costly and damaging for businesses, organisations, and individuals alike.  Changing passwords, is simply not enough to keep the bad guys out”

McEwen advocated that protection from cyber-attacks required proactive steps to secure online accounts, assets, networks and devices. “In addition to existing efforts, organisations and governments need to prioritise a significant expansion of cybersecurity investment. This means investing in a ‘unprecedented leap’ in more robust offensive, defensive and governance security measures, providing more training and resources to employees, and partnering with cybersecurity experts, like CREST ANZ members, to stay ahead of emerging threats”.

“If Government and enterprise clients, work together with CREST ANZ members, we might have a much better chance of keeping the bad guys at bay and avoiding a potential ‘dystopian’ future, said McEwen.