“Imagine trying to do COVID without electricity” - Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs of Australia

Recent cyber-attacks have shown its crippling effect on Australian organisations. Federal Parliament,1 Channel Nine,2 West Australian Parliament3 and some of Queensland’s major hospitals4 are just some of the organisations that have felt the repercussions of these attacks. 

Home Affairs have recently voiced its concerns of a cyber-attack on Australia's critical infrastructure. In response, the Federal Government has proposed new legislation to protect Australia’s assets in critical sectors including water, health, energy and transport. Home Affairs Department Secretary Mike Pezzullo believes the threat to our nation’s electricity network is real, “immediate” and “realistic”. It gives rise to the concerning concept of, what happens if we fall victim to a cyber-attack on our electricity sector amidst the COVID-19 pandemic?

What we see is a lot of corporate entities failing to meet necessary cybersecurity standards in order to protect themselves and anyone virtually connected. Cyber criminals tend to chase these larger opportunities such as corporate systems and critical sectors such as the resource and government sectors. Although, cyber criminals do not discriminate, as such, individuals’ personal computers and WIFI’s are still valid targets. One reason for this is possibly vulnerability.

Those that are hacked are often asking, ‘why me?’. Cyber criminals are often not after you and your home computer content, but after a trusted relationship you have with someone higher up. Leapfrogging off your system and compromising your system all in one go.⁵ With a reported average of 164 cybercrime reports made by Australians every day (about one report every 10 minutes), what can be done?⁶

2. Passwords

It can be frustrating having numerous passwords for different applications, yet it provides a robust protection to you if one of your applications are hacked.

Create new passwords often and change them regularly. Use a unique combination of numbers, letters and case types each time.

3. Anti-virus Software

Install dependable, trustworthy security and anti-virus software.

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