Cybersecurity is top of mind for Aussie businesses

Cybersecurity is the top risk concern for Australian businesses, according to Vanta’s latest State of Trust report.

A survey of business and IT leaders globally found that 52% of Australian leaders ranked cybersecurity threats as their top concern, ahead of operational risk (41%), financial risk (40%) and brand reputation damage (30%). The survey found that 52% of Australian businesses are facing security threats more than weekly, and 62% of respondents admit that their security and compliance posture needs improvement, with businesses on average spending nine working weeks per year to become compliant.

But despite this, only 44% of Australian small businesses with 50 or fewer employees have a dedicated security budget, and only 13% are regularly monitoring their AI models to show compliance with data privacy regulation.

There are signs of change, with 66% of Australian businesses now recognising that a more efficient approach to security and compliance would benefit the business in terms of time and cost savings, and 63% agreeing that it would result in higher trust. Meanwhile more than two in five Australian businesses have terminated a relationship with a vendor due to security concerns, the report found.

Vanta APAC GM Jonathon Coleman said there are some positive signs in the findings.

“After two years of major cyber breaches hitting the Australian headlines, Australian businesses are waking up to the very real idea of cyber threats,” he said. “But awareness is only half the battle. Action is the other half — and as larger businesses invest more in their own cyber protection, the vulnerabilities left in the defences of small businesses become only more apparent to attackers, who tend to be opportunistic in nature.”

Coleman acknowledged that, historically, the time and effort organisations have needed to put into compliance have been prohibitive.

“But we’re in the AI age now, where organisations can automate a large amount of compliance work, which helps make it less of a check-box exercise and more of a strong ongoing security measure that helps drive business,” he said.

Image credit: iStock.com/Liudmila Chernetska