Corporate Cyber Attacks on the rise, more cyber defence needed a post pandemic world

Global cyber security leader, Microsoft Solutions, tracks 8 trillion cyber threats a day while Australian Cyber Security Centre has warned of a “significant increase” in attacks on businesses since March 2020, estimated to cost $29 billion to Australian businesses. A recent report from Gartner recommended businesses should focus on partnering for cyber security rather than try to manage all the trillions of daily cyber threats themselves. 

Interactive’s Chief Security Officer, Scott McKean, said “Since the move to a more remote way of working  data breaches and cyber attacks on a businesses cloud services are more prevalent. The government’s latest Notifiable Data Breaches report found data breaches resulting from human error accounted for 38% of notifications, up 18% which suggested that as teams are working more remotely, cyber criminals are taking advantage of the lack of face to face communication and sending malicious emails from a company address. 

We know that cyber security is no longer an issue just for the IT department in an organisation, company directors are liable if their business is affected by a data breach or cyber attack so these conversations are happening at the board level of an organisation. However cyber threats are now so pervasive and complex that often senior management don’t know the right questions to ask to stay ahead of the threat. 

We believe the solution is a third party managed system that provides round the clock support without spending the whole IT budget,” Mr McKean said. 

The new offering provides customers with 24/7 support from Interactive, reduces time from finding the cyber threat to solving the threat and is a more cost effective way for businesses to manage their cyber security. 

Interactive’s recent customer win, Pact Group the largest manufacturer of rigid plastic packaging products in Australasia and placed on the AFR Most Innovative Companies list eight years in a row, has started using the offering. 

“A security partner really needs to understand how a business is hung together, from a technical standpoint, but they also need to understand where the risks lie. For a growing B2B business like ours, every acquisition and external engagement needs to be factored in and Interactive are very proactive at assessing and designing for these complex levels of risk.

“We’re getting a double lift from this project. First in terms of superior product capabilities from Azure Sentinel, which has matured very quickly and integrates extremely well. Secondly, we get enormous benefit from the expertise and partnership approach inherent in the Interactive team.” Guy Rosvall, General Manager Infrastructure and Services at Pact.

Rachel Bondi, Chief Partner Officer, Microsoft Australia said; “Azure Sentinel provides a bird’s eye view of an entire business, quickly identifying potential cyber trouble-spots to allow instant remedial action. Our modern, cloud native security information and enterprise management platform, Microsoft Sentinel uses AI to ensure business can respond smarter and faster to cyber threats anytime, anywhere. “We are delighted to work with Interactive on this innovative security-as-a-service solution which is designed to provide peace of mind to customers like Pact Group, which can be confident it has a market leading security partner in Interactive and Sentinel.”

For over 30 years, Interactive has been a leading provider of IT services and support. As Australia has become more reliant on technology, Interactive has grown to manage data centres, offer cloud services, provide business continuity and hairware maintenance for customers. 

“We see the future growth of our business in the cloud and cyber security space, as businesses move totally online and corporates have more employees working remotely, cyber security and secure cloud services will be imperative to business operations,” Mr McKean said.