Cyber Security Moving From Backrooms to Boardrooms

Australian businesses’ awareness of cyber security risk has exploded in the year since the National Cyber Security Strategy was released, and was becoming “normalised” as a board responsibility, Macquarie Government managing director Aidan Tudehope said today.

Cyber security for many years was locked away with IT departments and never hit the boardroom agenda until there was a disaster.

“The growing understanding around the cyber security risk – and responsibility – that must be understood and owned by the senior management teams of businesses, has been perhaps the most important step forward in the past year,” Mr Tudehope said.

Across the community, cyber security risk was quickly becoming an issue the people not only related to, but were beginning to take responsibility for.

“There is good news even in the stream of bad news stories about hacks, breaches and malware!

“Not so long ago, those stories were in specialist media and maybe buried away in the technology pages of newspapers, if they were reported at all.

“Today, they have moved into the front of the paper, which properly reflects the importance of these issues,” Mr Tudehope said.

The next big challenges were to help medium sized businesses to know what to do to raise their cyber security posture, Mr Tudehope said.

“The “Cyber Security Weakest Link” report we commissioned from the National Security College last year highlighted the deficiencies in practices among these thousands of businesses,” he said.

“These businesses have the same complex, interconnected networks as the top end of town, but don’t have the internal resources to effectively manage the risks.

“In today’s interconnected world, their vulnerabilities can put their customers, suppliers and partners at equal risk,” Mr Tudehope said.

“The next year must be the year of new and innovating policy thinking, focusing on that cohort to build on the good work of the past,” he said.

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About Macquarie Government: Macquarie Government is a division of the Macquarie Technology Group (ASX MAQ). It provides services to Federal and State Government agencies, including Secure Internet and Secure Cloud services.