Hello. I am Susie Jones, the Co-Founder and CEO of Cynch Security.
At Cynch Security, we are passionate about helping small business owners avoid having a cyber attack become one of the worst days of their working lives. I would like to thank coreplus for giving me the opportunity to share my views on how the COVID-19 pandemic has created the “perfect storm” for cybercriminals, and what Allied Health Professionals can do about it.
The Perfect Cyber Storm
99% of cyber attacks require human interaction in order to succeed (https://www.proofpoint.com/au/resources/threat-reports/human-factor), which makes you and your team the best and worst cyber defence your business has. The faceless men and women behind their keyboards sending you phishing emails, invoice scams and trying to buy your usernames and passwords from the dark web thrive in environments where fear reigns and confusion is rife. This means that the last four months during the COVID-19 pandemic have not only been some of the most dangerous for the physical health of all Australians, but also for their digital health. In fact, SCAMWATCH (https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/types-of-scams/current-covid-19-coronavirus-scams?date=2020) has received reports of over 3300 scams since the pandemic began earlier this year.
What has already been done?
You can find a stack of free resources (https://cynch.com.au/resources/keeping-your-small-business-cyber-fit-while-working-remotely-during-an-emergency) for small businesses on how to stay cyber safe whilst also switching to remote working and using unsecured home networks on our website. We’ve developed a short cyber fitness program (https://cynch.com.au/media/introducing-cyber-fitness-programs) for those businesses that want tailored advice on these risks. We ran countless webinars providing advice to small business owners in different industries to help them through the first few months. Even after all of this, business owners across all industries, including Allied Health, continue to click on the wrong link and expose their business to cybercriminals. In our own research, we have seen that businesses only addressed approximately 5% of their cyber risks, leaving 95% of their business technologies exposed.
We want to do more, but what?
Despite all of the above, very little is understood on a broader level regarding the cybersecurity challenges of small businesses, especially those with fewer than 20 staff. In the past, much of the research into business attitudes has focused on larger corporates, informing the creation of the highly technical solutions available today. To help guide the creation of better support for small businesses, AustCyber (the Australian Government Cyber Security Growth Network), Deakin University, RMIT University and Cynch Security have embarked on what is aimed to be Australia’s biggest project to gather valuable insights into this problem. You can read more about the project in this announcement from the beginning of this year (https://www.austcyber.com/news-events/aussie-small-businesses-win-cynchdeakin-partnership-cyber-intervention). Alongside this research, we’re also testing the effectiveness of our latest cyber fitness program (a Cyber Boot Camp) with volunteer small businesses. We see this as a win-win – we get to confirm we’ve built a product that solves a real problem, you get a free online cybersecurity service for six weeks!
It all starts with one simple step… We want to make sure that Allied Health Professionals are considered in this research, and that you have access to our Cyber Boot Camp. To contribute your responses and register for the Boot Camp, just head to this site and get started: https://cynch.com.au/small-business-cyber-security-study
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Susie Jones is Co-Founder and CEO of Cynch Security, an organisation that supports small businesses to protect their livelihood from cyber risks. https://www.linkedin.com/in/susiecynchsecurity/ https://cynch.com.au
