Cybersecurity Challenges for Australian Businesses: Research Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of cybercrime's impact on Australian businesses. It identifies the types of cyber threats, including online fraud, hacking, and data breaches, and explores the challenges businesses face in maintaining cybersecurity. The report delves into the scope of the project, examining the legal statutes and policies enacted by the Australian government to safeguard businesses from cyber threats. It reviews the concept and impact of cybercrime, discussing common cyber security issues, such as fake advertisements, email fraud, and app store malware. The report also explores the concept of cyber security, the challenges associated with it (including human factors, targeted attacks, and lack of awareness), and the impact of cybercrime on businesses, including statutory regulations. The Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) and the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) are highlighted in relation to cyber security measures. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of robust cyber defenses and national partnerships to mitigate cyber threats and protect Australian businesses.

Running head: BUSINESS RESEARCH
Business Research
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
1.0. Introduction...........................................................................................................................2
2.0. Project Objective..................................................................................................................2
3.0. Project Scope........................................................................................................................3
4.0. Literature review...................................................................................................................3
5.0. Conclusion..........................................................................................................................10
Reference list.................................................................................................................................11

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1.0. Introduction
Cyber crime is becoming one of the raging issues for the businesses in Australia. It is
difficult to assume the accurate figure of how much the businesses are expending due to the
enhancement in the cyber crime. The increase in the cyber crime causes disruption in business
and results in information and revenue loss. Besides the private sector, the government of
Australia is also concerned about the amplification of the issues related to cyber crimes.
Consequently, the business organizations as well as the government of the country are striving to
develop cyber security policies and implement them within the business organization and in the
country (Valli, Martinus and Johnstone 2014).
The Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) has amalgamated all the cyber security
capabilities that were prevailing across the Australian Government into a single location. CERT
is the Computer Emergency Response Team of the country and is the contact point for all the
Australian businesses that are affected by cyber security issues. All the major Australian
businesses including the owners of the critical infrastructures or any other systems that is of
national interest who becomes subject to cyber security issues shall contact CERT for assistance
and support against such cyber threats. The Australian businesses are under statutory obligation
to act in compliance with the cyber security framework (Stuart 2016).
2.0. Project Objective
 To identify the kinds of threats posed by cyber crimes in Australian Businesses
 To recognize the challenges faced by cyber security for businesses in Australia

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3.0. Project Scope
The scope of the project is to recognize the challenges and the issues related to cyber security
faced by the Australian businesses and the legal statutes or policies that have been enacted or
developed by the government of the country with a view to safeguard the business organizations
from the cyber threats (Brookes 2015). The business corporations shall be at an advantageous
position if they act in compliance with the cyber security provide by the government of the
country. The literature review shall also entail useful information about the types of challenges
that are being faced by the business organizations due to the enhancement of the cyber crimes.
Further, the information includes the huge amount of money that is incurred by these business
organizations to maintain the advanced cyber security systems. Moreover, the information
provided about the different methods that would safeguard the businesses from being subjected
to cyber crimes.
4.0. Literature review
Concept and Impact of cyber crime in Business in Australia
The cybercrime refers to the crime committed using computer devices and the internet to
act in contrary to the law. Some of the common cyber crimes include online frauds, identity
fraud, theft, and hacking of websites and computer systems. Cyber crime attacks lead the
companies to spend hefty amount as per the unclassified report of the Australian Cyber Security
Centre (ACSC). As per the report of the ACSC, the businesses that are mostly subjected to cyber
crimes include Banking, Communication providers and Energy providers.
In Australia, most of the business is dependent on the Internet for their everyday
activities. All the critical and vital information are being stored in the online storage systems

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known as ‘cloud’ such as the information about the details of the company, the personal
information about the members of the organization, the financial details and other useful an vital
information of the company (Wall 2015). It has become a common practice for the hackers to
hack such digital information of major companies and threaten the companies to cause damage to
their reputation. To compromise with company data is a serious issue for any company and the
corporations are required to be cautious and adopt reasonable measures to prevent such cyber
crime.
Cyber activities that are malicious in nature pose a security challenge for all the
businesses being operated in the country and all over the world. The Australian organizations
across the private and public sectors have been subject to frequent cyber attacks. In fact, major
multinationals overseas and governmental organizations have suffered immense loss of sensitive
and personal information causing significant damage to the business and its goodwill (Sarre
2016).
The most common cyber security issues faced by Australian Companies
Recently, in 2016, major companies like Yahoo and Snapchat have been subject to significant
cyber attacks that had caused substantial damage to the privacy data of the companies and have
affected their reputation as well. Given that the country has a stable economy and a very internet
friendly society, it is no surprise that it attracts a good opportunity for the cyber criminals to hack
the digital information. The most common forms of the cyber related activities that causes
damage to the reputation of the company are as follows:
 Number of fakes- the number of fakes is increasing that causes reduction in the trust of
the people in the internet and businesses. This implies that it becomes difficult for the

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businesses to build trusts with the customers. Fake advertisements are becoming common
for the hijackers to hijack the websites.
 Email frauds- Due to the fakes appearing all over the internet, the hijackers are provided
with greater accessibility to the machine learning tools, which gave rise to fake email
frauds. The cyber criminal usually target those individuals who are conferred with greater
financial responsibility within the business and deceives that individual to transfer the
funds into a fraudulent bank account.
 App store malware- the increase in mobile ransomware allows hackers to have access to
credit cards and bank accounts.
 Authentication scheme- people usually use the same passwords for various accounts and
cyber criminal depend on the previous history of previous passwords and access their
accounts.
Concept of cyber security
In order to combat with cyber crimes, multi-disciplinary affair that aims at preventing
cybercrime from taking place in the first place and minimizing its impact after it takes places.
This is known as the practice of cyber security. Although it is a fact, that cyber security is
constantly developing with the increase in the cyber crimes, but in case of failure of the cyber
security, it would cause violation of user accounts and publications of passwords and names
(Scully 2014). The cyber crimes usually deal with financial gain, theft of government
intelligence or critical business infrastructures. Further, the incline in the occurrence in the
malicious cyber activities, it is posing a threat to the national security, economy and foreign
policy of the country.

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Challenges of cyber security
Since the systems and people have become connected significantly, the value and
quantity of information that is available online has enhanced as well. This has also led to an
incline in the attempts made to exploit and steal such information. This establishes the fact that
the cyberspace and the opportunities it offers pose a significant threat (Clough 2015).
The most substantial challenge that cyber security faces is the humans themselves. Multi-
faced creatures who are merely concerned about their influences, agendas, beliefs and their
faults, characterize the human. They give more priority to their own interests and agendas and
wisdom have time to think about others (Hooper et al. 2013). Even the strictest system can be
hacked by using the social engineering. A user who is convinced to provide his login details over
the phone to some unknown person; an innocent click on any email link or being convinced to
provide personal information, cannot be prevented from falling into the trap of cyber enabled
activities. Under such circumstances, no secure network or security software or firewalls can
prevent such cyber activities.
In a recent research made by the University of Germany, it has been reported that more
than half of people simply click on links that have been sent by strangers despite being aware of
the fact that such messages or links could easily hack their personal as well as other essential
information.
Further, it can be observed that although cyber security is all about defending the
technologies used by businesses in the contemporary world, but it also defends individuals.
However, the due to the unawareness or casualness that people exhibit while accessing websites
and social networks, they fall prey to the advanced cyber enabled activities which causes loss of

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valuable information as well as psychological distress. Therefore, it is important to understand
and recognize the threats posed by the cyber crimes to avert such crimes.
Another significant factor that poses a challenge to the cyber security in the
contemporary world is the increase in the targeted attacks- from violation and email distribution
of socially engineered ransomware with a view to cause harmful attacks on the critical
infrastructure like energy networks. Data manipulation is another significant challenge that
encompasses cyber security today. This refers to the controlling of the machines or providing
wrong/manipulated information to human operators without their knowledge (Yar 2013).
An intrusion vector refers to the path that gains access to a target and the common
intrusion vectors include malicious links and emails sent, attachments, fake websites that
download viruses and through unsecured wireless hotspots and weak passwords. Malicious
actors use intrusion vectors with a view to exploit human behavior (Ko and Choo 2015). They
usually create an email that contains malicious software, which is based on the interest of the
person targeted in order to attract the target to open such vector. The actors usually manipulate
such persons to disclose confidential information and such target is ether chosen through social
media or cyberspace.
Lack of proper education and awareness is another essential factor that poses a challenge
to the cyber security. It has been observed that professionals like lawyers and doctors hold
prestigious positions but have incompetent knowledge about the cyber security. Education
includes incorporating cyber security at workplace to inform people of the risks associated with
the cyber space.

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Another essential factor includes lack of collaboration amongst the individuals and
authorities that are responsible to prevent any form of cyber attacks. On the contrary, the
attackers work together as a team and they work exceptionally well in that they share their
knowledge and skills and develop new hacking techniques.
Impact on Business
The Cyber Security Strategy lays more emphasis on the damage that is caused to the
business due to the malicious cyber activity especially, theft and manipulation of the company
data and other relevant information (Shackelford 2014). Although the contravention and hacking
of the company information brings the organization under the limelight and attracts media
coverage, but if such information is or trade secrets is compromised by competitors or they
become subject to the ‘hactivist attacks like Sony that was allegedly caused by the North
Korean hackers’, it would cause substantial damage to the business organization. The cyber-
enabled activities shall affect the directorial duties as well as the requirements of annual director
report disclosure, hence, the directors are required to exhibit care ad diligence while exercising
their duties.
Statutory Regulations
The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) has stated that cyber
resilience is regarded as high-risk area that shall be taken into consideration in ASIC’s
surveillance programs of regulated entities. Hence, the business organizations are required to
comply with the regulations. The Australian Securities Exchange recommended that listed
entities must review the effectiveness of the management framework. The Privacy Act [1988]
(Cth) (Privacy Act) requires all private sector and non-for-profit organizations whose annual

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turnover is more than $3 million to take reasonable steps in order to safeguard the personal
information from being lost or misused.
The establishment of the Cyber Security Strategy by the Australian Government aimed at
implementing the following five themes of action in the next four years to 2020:
 Stringent cyber defenses; National cyber partnership Cyber smart nation; Innovation and growth; Global influence and obligations;
The government shall provide substantial resources with a view to improve its own cyber
security facilities, which would require recruitment of cyber security specialists in every
governmental departments and agencies. given that the cyber attacks are usually conducted
through the weakest link and that the hackers target the individuals by accessing the connected
networks, therefore, the government is required to provide guidance to the government agencies
with a view to continuously assess the security risks associated with such agencies (Shafqat and
Masood 2016).
The Cyber Security Strategy provides a wide scope for development in the cyber security
sector. The private sectors are required to co-design the national voluntary guidelines on cyber
security. The government shall develop a national plan to improve the cyber security of the
country as a part of the National Innovation and Science Agenda. The government aims at:
 Recognizing the cyber technology gaps for the industry;

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 Coordinating and linking with a national cyber security innovation network and the cyber
security innovation hubs overseas;
 To invest in the national cyber security framework and infrastructure;
5.0. Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be inferred that although there are several threats
associated with cyber security in Australia, but there are technological opportunities that would
enable the country to combat such crime-enabled activities. On one hand, it is the technology
that has led to an incline the cyber crime rates all over the world, on the other hand, it is the same
technology that provides opportunities to prevent the same. Technology provides new ways of
conducting business operations and presents new business and economic opportunities. In order
to prevent cyber crimes and ensure cyber security it is important that cyber security form an
essential part of the conversation in every business organization so that it is considered in the
decision–making process of the organization. Every business organizations must ensure that they
have best practice policies, an efficient IT auditing and a responsible staffs for cyber security
operations. Further, in case of a breach, the faster it is responded to the greater is the possibility
of lessening the loss, whether it is reputational or financial. Lastly, sharing the results of the
cyber breach with government and industry shall prevent an unknown hacker from hacking the
organization’s information.

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Reference list
Valli, C., Martinus, I. and Johnstone, M., 2014, January. Small to medium enterprise cyber
security awareness: an initial survey of Western Australian business. In Proceedings of the
International Conference on Security and Management (SAM) (p. 1). The Steering Committee of
The World Congress in Computer Science, Computer Engineering and Applied Computing
(WorldComp).
Stuart, D., 2016. Defence mechanism. Company Director, 32(6), p.40.
Brookes, C., 2015. Cyber security: Time for an integrated whole-of-nation approach in australia.
Indo-Pacific Strategic Papers.
Brookes, C., 2015. Cyber security: Time for an integrated whole-of-nation approach in australia.
Indo-Pacific Strategic Papers.
Sarre, R., 2016. Hacked: Digital innovation comes hand in hand with cyber security.
Scully, T., 2014. The cyber security threat stops in the boardroom. Journal of business continuity
& emergency planning, 7(2), pp.138-148.
Broadhurst, R., Grabosky, P., Alazab, M., Bouhours, B. and Chon, S., 2014. An analysis of the
nature of groups engaged in cyber crime.
Hooper, C., Martini, B. and Choo, K.K.R., 2013. Cloud computing and its implications for
cybercrime investigations in Australia. Computer Law & Security Review, 29(2), pp.152-163.
Yar, M., 2013. Cybercrime and society. Sage.