SYDNEY: According to the government's report released on Friday, Australia was the target of one cyberattack every seven minutes last financial year in part due to criminal activity and state-sponsored groups.
According to the Australian Cyber Security Centre's latest annual cyber threat report, 76,000 cybercrime reports were received last financial year, up 13% from the previous year.
Just over half of the attacks focused on individuals for fraud and theft, but the report noted that state-sponsored attackers had made cyberspace a "battleground," including attacks from state-linked groups in Iran, Russia, and China.
Multiple attacks against Australian essential services were thwarted over the period, including a November 2021 attack on government-owned utility CS Energy, responsible for a tenth of the nation's electricity output.
"It's a huge wakeup call and companies need to get their act together...we need to do much better," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said at a news conference on Friday.
"The government has stepped up, the private sector needs to step up in the interest of their customers but also their own interest."
The ACSC, part of the intelligence-collecting Signals Directorate, reported 95 cyber incidents impacting critical infrastructure last fiscal year.
The third annual report covers the period before high-profile hacks at Australia's second-largest telecoms company Optus, owned by Singapore Telecommunications Ltd, and its biggest health insurer Medibank Private Ltd, which combined compromised some 14 million customer accounts.
The report underscored accusations that the Optus and Medibank hacks were relatively unsophisticated, blaming the majority of major incidents on inadequate software updates.
Experts told Reuters last week a skills shortage is making it harder for Australia's understaffed and overworked cybersecurity specialists to stop breaches.
Business losses attributable to cybercrime rose on average 14% over the period, with the average crime costing a small business A$39,000 ($24,540).
Australian insurers are wary of the escalating number of attacks and damage, producing an increase of 56% in premiums in the second quarter, according to Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc.