Victoria home to almost 30% of Australia’s cyber attacks as premiums increase worldwide

Insurers are taking notice of increases in cyber attacks and breaches reported by key Federal Government bodies, with substantial increases in high value claims for cyber related events.

Insurance Business Magazine reports that premiums increased 32% globally in the last year, thanks to a 170% increase in ransomware attacks.

The Australian Cyber Security Centre’s (ACSC) Annual Cyber Threat Report shows that criminals are taking advantage of so many Australians working from home, and that:

• a cybercrime is reported every 8 minutes in Australia
• cyber incidents grew by 13% in the last year
• the estimated cost to Australian businesses and individuals is more than $33 billion
• the highest proportion of cybercrime reports came from Queensland and Victoria, accounting for about 30% each.

This comes alongside the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s Data Breaches Notifications report, which stated that 446 data breach notifications were made between January to June 2021, many attributed to human error.

Additionally, the Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner’s latest Incident Insights Report shows a 40% year-on-year increase in security incident notifications received between that same period. The majority of notifications relate to compromised personal information, followed by health information.