Sophos, a global leader in network and endpoint security, is bringing their True Blue Defence Tour to The Lucky Hotel in Newcastle on Tuesday 25 February with the help of local IT services company, CSA.

A team of experts will come together to deliver the latest insights on the ever-changing landscape of cyber-security in Australia to an audience of small-to medium-sized businesses (SMB) in an attempt to help them avoid the common cyber-security threats they see businesses exposed to.

In the latest Notifiable Data Breaches (NDB) report, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) received 245 data breach notifications.

Of this, 34 per cent were attributed to human error and 62 per cent to malicious or criminal attacks. Of the malicious attacks, more than 50 per cent occurred by way of phishing, hacking and ransomware.

This seems to be a pattern in Australia with similar statistics appearing in every OAIC NDB report since January 2018 when the report began.

The prevalence of these attacks reveals that many staff are not aware, nor educated on the types of attacks they may encounter day to day.

Due to their small size and local operations, many SMBs view cybersecurity as a big end of town issue and not something that affects them directly. As a result, many small businesses are left unprotected, with cybersecurity not being prioritised.

Head of Network and Security at CSA, Leon Slattery, said that no business can simply escape the threat of cyber-security and believes events like this and education can help to equip businesses against this threat.

“No industry is immune from digital disruption. This brings opportunity and risk for all organisations, as the shift to digital increases cyber security risk,” Leon said.

“For a long time now, industry has realised that it’s not a question of if, but when you will be faced with a data security breach. This has led to cyber risk now being directly linked to business outcomes. CEOs and Boards are now tracking and governing the risk, to ensure the protection of their brands and customer trust.”

Global Security Solutions Engineer at Sophos, Ben Verschaeren, continued with this Leon’s sentiments expressing how important it is that small businesses are educated about common risks and how to effectively avoid them.

“Small businesses are not immune to cyberattacks, however many cybercriminals target SMBs as they know that these businesses think they have immunity because of their size,” Ben said.

“This is why it’s so important for business owners and managers to allocate resources effectively, ensuring that cybersecurity is prioritised and the business has the protection it needs to thwart any attacks.”

The True Blue Defence tour has been organised to fill in the gaps of knowledge and ensure small-to-medium enterprises become more aware and informed about cyber-security and how to put together a risk management system that takes cyber-security into consideration.

Leon said that many businesses find the idea of combatting cyber-security scary, but with the right support you will safeguard your business from what would be even scarier outcomes.

“This means that building cyber resilience is no longer an option, but a necessity. Actively securing systems end-to-end against current threats is hard. It is even harder if you don’t have expert resources, knowledge and skills within your internal team.”

“CSA has partnered with Sophos for over 10 years to provide end-point protection. We provide a range of strategic and tactical cyber consulting and ongoing managed security services, to help protect clients of all sizes and industries.”

The event will commence at 3:30 PM on Tuesday 25 February, with a range of speakers, Q&A’s, networking and more included with each registration.

IMAGE | Head of Network and Security at CSA, Leon Slattery.