FooForce CEO calls for national approach to reporting cyberattacks

Australian cybercrime victims need an organised national approach when reporting cyberattacks, according to Frances Russell, the CEO of leading managed service and security provider, FooForce. The Australian Cyber Security Centre revealed that a cyber security threat was reported every eight minutes in the past financial year, however hardly anyone knows who to call for help when cyber criminals attack. “The missing piece of the law-enforcement puzzle is an emergency number to report cybercrime that is the same no matter where you are in Australia, something similar to 000,” Russell said.

Russell added that the cybercrime reporting system should be simple enough for anyone to report a cyberattack. The Australian Cyber Security Centre’s latest Annual Cyber Threat Report found that the cost of cybercrime in Australia was $33 billion a year. More than 67,500 cybercrimes were reported in the 2020-21 financial year, an increase of 13% from the year before, the ACSC revealed. Russell noted that these figures are likely to be on the low side of what is really happening, as many small businesses and individuals are unaware of the ACSC and therefore are not likely to report a cyberattack, as they don’t know it’s possible to make such a report. Russell said it wouldn’t matter to the victims of cyberattacks whether the specialist cyber police was a dedicated national force or state-and-territory-based specialist police units.

“All crime victims should need to care about is that when they call for help that help is available,” Russell said.

Russell added that small- to medium-sized businesses and individuals are particularly vulnerable to cyberattacks, as they lack the resources for dedicated cybersecurity expertise on staff. “It is important that they can simply and quickly call for help from specialist cyber police and that help is forthcoming,” Russell said.

Russell said that the experience of FooForce engineers bore out the truth of reports that the rate and ferocity of cyberattacks is increasing, noting that some of the companies targeted in Australia are so small they can’t afford to have a cybersecurity plan in place. However, they do provide jobs and valuable services, and together constitute a major part of the Australian economy.

“We have specialist police for almost every other category of crime. We need specialist cybercrime squads with a simple dedicated number they can be quickly reached on,” Russell said.

Russell said the authorities should determine how a specialist cybercrime reporting line would operate in practice, and whether it should be part of the existing 000 emergency response service. In the meantime, Russell advised that companies can take simple measures to protect their data and systems from attack, by having a plan for what to do when a cyberattack occurs, and testing backup regularly to make sure it works. Companies are also advised to train staff, keep computers up-to-date with patching and anti-malware software, and use strong security settings, including two-factor authentication and long passwords.

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