National Australia Bank has teamed with Microsoft to deliver a free cyber assessment tool to help Aussie small businesses prepare for and bounce back from a cyber attack.
The online self-assessment form takes under two hours and asks participants a series of questions about their organisation’s security, data and IT environment. The data findings and answers are used to provide participants with tailored, fact-based advice on how to improve cybersecurity for their business.
NAB’s Consumer and Business Insights research on scams education indicates that small and medium businesses (SMEs) are one of the least cyber prepared sectors, with just 15% percent conducting extensive training around scams and cyber security risks.
NAB chief security officer, Sandro Bucchianeri, says: “The number of cyber attacks impacting small businesses continues to grow each year. Last financial year, a cyber crime was reported every six minutes and cost small to medium businesses an average of $71,600, according to the latest research by the Australian Signals Directorate, with incidents surging 23 percent.”
Buchchianeri says SME need to be constantly on guard as cyber criminals continue to adopt their tactics, with an increase in phishing scams and ransomware among the top threats facing businesses.
“As we’ve seen over recent weeks, cyber criminals are stepping up their tactics, targeting high profile Australian businesses on a near-daily basis, impacting everyone from our hospital system, legal system and business community," he says. "Tools like this will help the small business sector respond if they are caught up in a hack.”