The report explores the impact of cyberattacks and breaches on Australian organizations and details how security teams are adapting to these challenges.

Accelerated Digital Transformation has caused security teams to face evolving threats as cybercriminals seize the opportunity to execute targeted attacks exploiting fast-tracked innovation and the anywhere workforce. The report found that 89% of Australian organizations surveyed experienced cyberattacks due to more employees working from home, highlighting the vulnerabilities in legacy security technology and postures.

“The race to adopt cloud technology since the start of the pandemic has created a once-in-a-generation chance for business leaders to rethink their approach to cybersecurity,” said Rick McElroy, Principal Cybersecurity Strategist, VMware. “Legacy security systems are no longer sufficient. Organizations need protection that extends beyond endpoints to workloads to better secure data and applications. As attacker sophistication and security threats become more prevalent, we must empower defenders to detect and stop attacks, as well as implement security stacks built for a cloud-first world.”

The Australian Security Insights Report provides intelligence on the cybersecurity landscape, attack and defense trends, along with the security priorities for organizations this year to maintain resilience. The key findings include:

A lack of urgency despite surge in material breaches. 77% of respondents have suffered a breach in the last 12 months with eight out of 10 breaches (79%) considered material. Yet, security professionals have underestimated the likelihood of a material breach. Almost two-thirds (59%) of Australian organizations say they fear a material breach in the next year, with the financial services and government sectors highly concerned, with 66% and 65% of respondents, respectively, saying they fear a breach. Over one-third (46%) of organizations have updated their security policy and approach to mitigate the risk.
Resurgence of ransomware and remote work creates unpredictable attack surface. 72% of respondents said attack volumes had increased – with the majority pointing to employees working from home as the cause – and 80% said attacks had become more sophisticated. The leading breach causes were ransomware (26%), third-party apps (19%), process weaknesses (18%) and out-of-date security technology (16%).
Manufacturing sector hit hardest by cyberattacks. 66% of respondents in the financial services sector experienced attack increases at an average of 27%. A staggering 91% of manufacturing sector respondents experienced attack increases at an above average 40%. Respondents from the healthcare sector fared better than average, with 68% reporting attack volume increases.
Cloud-first security strategies are now universal. 98% of respondents already use or plan to use a cloud-first security strategy. But the move to cloud has expanded the threat surface. 56% of respondents agree they need to view security differently now that the attack surface has expanded and 46% of respondents said they plan to build more security into their infrastructure and apps and reduce the number of point solutions. A cloud-first strategy is prevalent among government and financial services companies, where 92% and 82%, respectively, say they are cloud-first already.
Applications and workloads are top CISO concerns.

Applications and workloads are viewed as the most vulnerable points on the data journey.

57% of respondents agree they need better visibility over data and apps in order to pre-empt attacks.

54% of respondents also shared that their senior leadership team feel increasingly worried about bringing new applications to market because of the growing threat and damage of cyberattacks.
Security concerns are holding back adoption of AI. The next frontier for business innovation may be Artificial Intelligence, but almost half of respondents (48%) say that security concerns are holding them back from embracing AI and Machine Learning.

Digital skills are becoming an essential component for employees to perform their jobs proficiently. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated this digitisation journey to a certain extent for organisations as well as individuals.

India’s present workforce comprises only 12% digitally skilled employees, and the number of employees requiring digital skills in the country will need to increase nine-fold by 2026, according to a report commissioned by Amazon Web Services (AWS).

The research surveyed over 500 digital workers in India, and 3,196 workers in total across six countries in the APAC region, including Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore and South Korea.

Nearly 150 million workers in six APAC countries apply digital skills on the job, and those in need of such skills is poised to surge past 800 million by 2026, according to the report titled ‘Unlocking APAC’s Digital Potential: Changing Digital Skill Needs and Policy Approaches’.
About 70% of workers in India applied advanced digital skills in their jobs, it noted. And the top five digital skills in-demand in India are cloud architecture design (34%); software operations support (31%); website, game, or software development (28%); large-scale data modelling (28%); and cybersecurity skills (27%). Transitioning organisations from on-premises to cloud environments has been the most frequently used digital skill in India. This is reflected in the crucial role digitally-skilled employees play in transforming non-technology sectors like manufacturing.

Moreover, 76% of the digital workers in the country presently expect cloud computing to be an essential skill. Over 50% of digital workers in the manufacturing sector think they will require skills like cloud architecture design and the ability to create original digital content, to perform their jobs.

“A cloud-skilled workforce is instrumental in accelerating innovation and creating a competitive edge for India,” Rahul Sharma, President, AWS India and South Asia, said in a release.

In order to meet the projected demand of digitally skilled employees, the six APAC countries will need an estimated 5.7 billion digital skill sessions, and India will need a total of 3.9 billion digital skill sessions, over the next five years, as per the report..

“To meet the projected digital skill needs by 2026, each of the six APAC countries will require different policy approaches that address their unique challenges and skills priorities,” the report said.