SYDNEY: Professional services firm Deloitte is taking the threat to Australia’s cyber security seriously, establishing a national Cyber Intelligence Centre to link up with counterparts in the UK, Europe, Canada and the US.
The firm has set up Cyber Intelligence Centres in Deloitte’s offices in every Australian capital city, designed for a fast response time from anywhere.
It’s understood there’s also the potential for a standalone dedicated Australian facility down the track.
Deloitte estimates that the average cost of a data breach per Australian organisation is more than $2.5 million per year and rising, with the average breach involving more than 20,000 records in Australia over the five years to 2014.
Additionally, there was also a 25 per cent increase in data loss between 2013 and 2014 globally.
“Given there is no legislation for breach notification in Australia and that most organisations are focussed on prevention as opposed to detection, there is significant under-reporting of cyber breaches in Australia,” said Deloitte Cyber Risk Services Partner Tommy Viljoen.
James Nunn-Price, who joins the firm in Australia this wee to lead Cyber and establish the Australasian arm of Deloitte’s chain of Cyber Intelligence Centres said cyber risks are a result of dynamic targeted threats.
“On an industrial scale they are focused at the digital assets, operations and information of the organisation,” he said.
“Both complex and severe, these risks are evolving faster than business can react.”
The national Cyber Intelligence Centre will link in with Deloitte’s existing Cyber Intelligence Centres in the UK, Europe, Canada and the United States.
Mr Nunn-Price established the Cyber Intelligence Centre concept, overseeing its implementation in the UK in 2013 and its 24×7 services to clients, and was responsible for Deloitte’s overall information security, resilience and cyber advisory services to the UK Government.
“Our role is to help business better protect their critical assets against known and emerging threats across the ecosystem,” Deloitte cybersecurity global leader, Kelly Bissell said. “We help them monitor and watch out for any pre-emptive threats, so they both detect and protect themselves against both known and unknown adversarial activity.”
“It’s all about being secure and vigilant,” he said. “…and being sufficiently resilient to recover when incidents do occur.”
“Cloud computing, the world’s Internet of Things phenomenon – where each digital device is interconnected – the blurring of the personal and professional, and the ‘always-on’ nature of the internet, means costs associated with breaches are likely to continue to rise each year. So it is critical that organisations ensure their cybersecurity effectiveness,” Viljoen said.
“Add to this Deloitte Reputation@Risk research that shows there is an 80 per cent chance of a company losing at least 20 per cent of its value (over and above the market) in any single month due to reputation loss from the impact of a crisis – whether that be a cyber-breach or another disaster. These stats mean that cyber-security breaches are becoming top of mind for business leaders along with reputational risks.”
Deloitte/Forbes strategic risk research shows that regionally, the biggest impact of technology enablers and disrupters on established business models was in the Asia Pacific (including Australia), where 98 per cent of respondents report having changed their business strategies.
“We need business leaders to make sure they are sufficiently informed about the state of cybersecurity within their organisations. With new business models and corporate restructuring, new customer service and sales models, new sourcing and supply chain models, and inherently new applications and mobility tools, business leaders need to be able prepare for, respond to and recover from growing threats,” said Mr Viljoen.
The Cyber Intelligence Centre will link into the recently established Australian and South East Asian arm of the Deloitte global Centre for Excellence for Crisis Management.
