What Tomorrow’s Cybersecurity Risks Mean for Today

Roza Lozusic, Executive Director Policy & Public Affairs; Jacqui Kernot, Security Director - AU & NZ, Accenture; Feyi Akindoyeni, Founding Partner, Communications, SEC Newgate & Heidi Hutchison, Acting Assistant Director General Cyber Uplift, Australian Signals Directorate

• Based on a survey of members, cyber threats are keeping members up at night – Being hacked, phishing, fake id, personal data breach, reputational regulatory backlash and deep fakes etc.

• Australians are trusting but things like deep fakes and phishing affect our ability to trust each other

• Regulation and framework can build trust. The ASD motto is to reveal their (perpetrator’s) secrets and protect our own.

• Cyber actors persistently targeting Australians with one cyber-attack every six minutes.

• There is a difference between an incident and a crisis, and businesses need to have consistent plan to assess these.

• Businesses need timely and appropriate internal communication, to massage narrative. Mischief loves a vacuum.

• Globally in the political environment, every European and U.S campaign had cyber security breaches.

• Businesses also need to build up protections for critical infrastructure. For instance, banks and the financial sector are being targeted

• Encryption helps those impacted feel safe.

• AI machine learning use is up 70%. Generative AI has doubled in the last 12 months. Adoption is inevitable and it comes with risks

• Need to truly understand the pros and cons of AI and have a plan. Do I have the right people and technology? Have businesses adopted technology to protect the identity of senior executives?

• Cyber hygiene is important. How would businesses segment your data/IT infrastructure environment so only certain people can access it? If certain critical services are down, what do businesses switch to?