Technology, media, and telecommunications identified as Australia’s ‘most targeted industries’ by cyberattacks in 2023: report
The technology, media, and telecommunications (TMT) sectors were the most targeted industries in Australia by cyber threats in 2023, with a newly published report assessing that this could be attributed to Australia’s significant digital growth over the last decade, reshaping its digital ecosystem and creating new opportunities.
The report by Ensisgn InfoSecurity – Asia’s “largest comprehensive cybersecurity solutions provider” – was among others in Ensign’s fifth edition of its Cyber Threat Landscape Report 2024, which draws on Ensign’s proprietary and cyber threat intelligence sources, and marks the first inclusion of Australia data – a recent territorial expansion of Ensign.
According to Ensign, Australia’s rapid development and significant digital growth exposes the country to potential cyber risks, highlighting the vulnerability of sectors like TMT, which depend heavily on digital technologies.
The report also noted that Ransom was the primary pursuit of 52.7% of all observed cyberattacks in Australia, where attackers attempted to extort the victim for money after the incident.
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“This reflects a global worsening of the ransomware threat for corporates. In a deep-dive analysis, the report explored how these attackers operate, and how they “double” extort their victims as a new tactic. Beyond ransom, other pursuits by cyber threat actors include data leak (16.4%) and denial of service (12.1%), highlighting the intrinsic motivation by attackers to expose Australian organisations,” cautions Ensign.
“Encouragingly, Ensign has observed a heightened awareness of potential cyber threats across the six territories in 2023. The average “dwell time”, which measures how long the attacker stays inside their victim’s networks before discovery, fell sharply across industries (the maximum dwell time fell from 1095 days to 49 days), suggesting that defenders are getting better and detecting even stealthy cyber attackers.”
Ensign say report also included insights into how hacktivism (cyberattacks conducted by individuals or groups in support of a cause or ideology) has become a serious and worrying threat for organisations; how recent supply chain attacks, especially on network devices, are getting more rampant; and the threats and risks posed by Artificial Intelligence in the cyber and information domains.
The report concludes with suggestions for defenders on how they can prepare their organisations for such threats.
“The inclusion of Australia in our latest Cyber Threat Landscape report marks a significant milestone in our expansion efforts and the strategic importance of the Australian market to our operations,” said Charles Ng, Head of Global Markets at Ensign InfoSecurity.
“Many of the trends observed in 2023 will continue into 2024, and possibly even 2025. We hope that by publishing of this data, organisations can better understand the threats, how attackers think and operate, and use our recommendations to enhance their cybersecurity posture.”
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