The seminar follows a business breakfast – Act Now, Stay Secure – in December last year co-hosted by the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA) with the ACSC and the Home Affairs Department in which 60 small businesses and government representatives were given details about the suite of free products the ACSC had developed to support small to medium businesses in Australia with their cyber security.
The seminar was part of the Australian government’s beat cyber crime in your downtime awareness campaign, designed to encourage Australians to protect themselves against a range of cyber threats and drive them to cyber.gov.au
The government’s latest Annual Cyber Threat Report shows that last financial year ACSC had 67,500 cyber-crime reports from Australians, an of 13 per cent rise over the previous financial year. Self-reported financial losses due to cyber crime in Australia-based cyber-crime reports totalled more than $33 billion. ACSC’s threat report also highlighted small businesses made a higher number of cyber-crime reports than in the previous financial year.
Following consultation with the small-business sector ACSC has made available tailored products including information on threat advisories, an alert service, invitations to ACSC events to help small and medium-sized enterprises keep up to date with relevant cyber-security information for their businesses and step-by-step guides to help businesses implement effective cyber security practices.
There is also available a free “seminar in a box” resource packs, complete with speaking notes, real-life case studies and social media content for businesses and to help their employees, customers, and suppliers become more cyber secure.
Businesses are encouraged to join the ACSC Partnership Program to provide them with a better understanding of the cyber-security landscape and the steps required to protect themselves from cyber-security threats.
