More Australians are reporting being targeted by cyber criminals as the nation's digital spy agency points the finger at China as the major backer of serious hacking against Australian companies and critical infrastructure. The Australian signals directorate has released its annual cyber threat report revealing 94,000 reports of cyber crime in the past financial year.
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TVTranscript
00:00 This is showing that not only is cybercrime attracting or attacking Australia's federal
00:08 government agencies, its institutions, critical infrastructure across the country, it is also
00:14 targeting everyday Australians because we have seen these 94,000 reports to law enforcement
00:20 agencies of cybercrime in the last financial year. That is an increase of 23% on the previous
00:28 year. ASD, the Australian Signals Directorate who have compiled this report, have said that
00:33 may well be the tip of the iceberg because in many instances people may not actually
00:37 be reporting that they have been the victim of cybercrime. A lot of these reports, quite
00:42 interestingly, are coming out of Queensland and Victoria. It is not necessarily the case
00:47 that those two states are more of a target when it comes to cybercriminals. ASD thinking
00:52 that people there are just more vigilant and more diligent when it comes to actually reporting
00:57 those incidences. We know that there has also been an uptick in the average cost to businesses
01:04 for cybercrime incidents. If we take small businesses as an example, back in 2020-2021,
01:11 the average cost of a cybercrime incident was around $30,000. That has now lifted to
01:16 $46,000 in the last financial year. It is a fairly sobering set of statistics that ASD
01:22 is presenting there. At the more serious end of the spectrum, the incidences where ASD
01:28 has had to step in and try to tackle cybercriminals as they are undertaking those cyberhacks or
01:34 try to stem the damage that is being experienced by large companies and agencies like that,
01:41 that number of attacks has remained fairly steady at around 1,100 events over the last
01:45 financial year. But instances where there were extreme examples or exceptional compromises
01:52 of sensitive data have risen from two to five incidents in the last financial year. When
01:58 we talk about those more serious occasions or those more serious examples of hacking,
02:03 a lot of the attention goes to whether or not they are state-backed. ASD this morning
02:08 is pointing the finger at China as the main backer of state-sponsored cybercrime. There
02:14 is daylight between China and the next country on their list, which is Russia and then to
02:18 a lesser extent Iran. This presents something of a conundrum for the government at a time
02:23 when it is trying to stabilise its relationship with Beijing but also having intelligence
02:28 agencies call out China's behaviour in this space. A point not lost on the Deputy Prime
02:33 Minister and Defence Minister, Richard Miles, earlier today.
02:37 The relationship with China is complex. We have made that point from the very start.
02:43 That's actually why we need to be making sure that our diplomacy is excellent with China
02:48 and that we stabilise the relationship. But we've never pretended that this relationship
02:56 is easy. Matthew, why are intelligence agencies concerned
03:00 about the level of cooperation from some companies? Well, Karina, there is a fear that some companies
03:06 are effectively lawyering up before they go to ASD to alert them of a cyber incident.
03:11 They're concerned that if they hand over too much information to the digital spy agency
03:16 that that information could be used against them later on in a class action in court,
03:21 for example, or by other regulators who are pursuing those companies for allowing data
03:26 breaches to occur. The situation facing ASD is that they have asked the federal government
03:32 to consider new powers that would effectively ring-fence information the agency is given.
03:37 So a company can come to them, put everything on the table and say, "This is the set of
03:41 circumstances we're facing. Please help," and then not fear that that information is
03:45 going to be used for other purposes later on. It's a model that is used in the United
03:50 States and something that the federal government has said it is considering because it wants
03:54 to boost confidence in ASD and also boost that level of cooperation to ensure that cyber
04:00 attacks are tackled as soon as they eventuate.
04:03 [BLANK_AUDIO]