News media owner loses access to 10 years’ work as hackers ramp up attacks
Kelly Noble’s SA lifestyle and news website Glam Adelaide was targeted by cyber hackers, who took over its Instagram account, which has around 115,000 followers, and demanded more than $2000 for its return.
“It’s devastating,’ said Noble. “We lost access to 10 years of work, thousands of hours and more than 21,000 posts promoting SA destinations and businesses.
Kelly Noble
“I started Adelaide’s first social media agency so I’m no newcomer to this, but they’re getting more sophisticated and believable each day.”
Research shows that business owners are aware of cyber-crime, but they are just not prepared – 90% of attacks are still successful due to human error.
Business Australia, which provides advice to over 70,000 SMEs across the country has seen a surge in struggling small business owners reaching out for help on how to protect themselves from cyber attacks.
Thousands of small businesses seek cyber security assistance
A fresh spike of over 20,000 struggling small businesses have sought cyber assistance this year alone, urgently needing to protect their livelihood from cyber-criminals.
Business Australia has seen a surge in struggling small businesses searching for answers on how to protect themselves from cyber attacks, after receiving an influx of 20,000 small businesses looking for assistance so far this year.
Small businesses providing some of the nation’s most essential services have been affected with professional services top of the list, followed by manufacturing, health care and retail.
The Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) estimated that a cyber attack was deployed every eight minutes over the past 12 months, and 6 in 10 small businesses have been affected.
Business Australia general manager products Phil Parisis said Australian small businesses are now waking up to the fact that they are easy targets for cybercriminals.
“SMEs account for more than half of all cyber-crime incidents; and they are becoming increasingly aware of this, searching for the best tools to help them protect themselves.”
“Cybercriminals are savvy, they are taking on smaller businesses who knowingly have less resources, time and budget to protect themselves, unlike bigger companies with sophisticated security systems.”
“Malware, ransomware and scam emails are among the top three, and cyber criminals don’t have to be IT experts to deploy such scams, with TikTok videos showing exactly how this is done within minutes,” added Parisis.
Business Australia offer hope for small businesses saying while it can seem complex, some of the best protection comes in simple and consistent efforts, including training staff who are a company’s “best firewall”.
“Policies such as mandating difficult passwords for accounts, including where you store private data; and having a company policy of changing these every 3 to 6 months are simple and effective measures.”
“Company policies and protocols such as avoiding public Wi-Fi for business are also essential, as is training employees on what suspicious emails look like, and what to do if you receive one.”
Business Australia Cybercrime prevention measures for small business:
- Know the latest cyber criminal trends: Be aware of who they are and what they want
- Your employees are your best firewall: Build cyber training into your business plan
- Have a password protection strategy: It should be changed every 3- 6 months Including employees and your software and data management tools.
Business Australia’s Business Australia Cyber, has attracted the attention of thousands of small businesses, which is specially designed to help small businesses manage cyber security.
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topics
Australian Cyber Security Centre
Business Australia
Cybersecurity
Glam Adelaide
hackers
Kelly Noble
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Phil Parisis
SME
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If their Instagram account was taken over by “hackers”, could they not just have contacted Instagram to have their access restored? I understand it’s a massive pain and blow to a small business, but surely that wouldn’t have caused them to lose 10 years worth of work across 21,000 posts?!
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