It’s been a rollercoaster couple of months for manufacturing in Australia, with the Australian Government promising over $1.5 billion to modernise the sector and create new markets and industries to accelerate the COVID-19 recovery, with many organisations already re-tooling their operations to produce new products.

This is an exciting time for Australia’s manufacturing future. It’s also one which we expect to further accelerate the automation of existing manufacturing outfits and the establishment of new, more highly automated production lines.

A recent study by Pitney Bowes reports that automation can assist in freeing up capital to invest in creating new and better-paying jobs. Another report by Bain & Company entitled Labour 2030: The Collision of Demographics, Automation and Inequality, forecast automation as one of the key drivers of change that will create an economic boost for Australia over the next decade and offset a slowing in labour force growth.

At FM Global, we’ve certainly seen an increase in policyholders who are looking to integrate automation into their production lines. This tracks the evolution and advancement of robotic…

Read More…

The Australian Cyber Security Center (ACSC) has published its annual Cyber Threat Report. The ACSC is an operational arm of the Australian government. It is responsible for “strengthening the nation’s cyber resilience, and for identifying, mitigating and responding to cyber threats against Australian interests. The ACSC also manages ReportCyber on behalf of federal, state and territory law enforcement agencies, providing a single online portal for individuals and businesses to report cybercrime.”

Over the year ended June 30^th 2020, they “responded to 2,266 cyber security incidents and received 59,806 cybercrime reports at an average of 164 cybercrime reports per day, or one report every 10 minutes.”

Of the cyber security incidents, 803 (35.4%) were reported by government agencies. Healthcare was the sector with the next highest level of incidents at 164.

To put those statistics into context, according to the Australian government, as of June 30, 2019 there were “2,375,753 actively trading businesses in the Australian economy”. Of those, 141,628 were in healthcare.

So there was roughly 0.6 security incidents reported per thousand businesses, 1.2 per thousand in healthcare.

Cybercrime is a very broad category, including not only fraud but also online bullying and the sharing of intimate images or…

Подробнее…

Article by Stax founder and CPO James Coxon.

With companies accelerating their digital transformation efforts thanks to COVID-19, many may assume compliance would fall to the bottom of the to-do list. But cyber-attacks, such as the one reported by the Australian Government last month, only highlight the need for companies to ensure their compliance is watertight.

If an organisation is running on the cloud, its ecosystem has to be compliant with industry standards and frameworks. Here are some tips on how to ensure compliance processes are fit for purpose.

Start and start now

As the Chinese proverb goes, “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second-best time is now”. The same goes for compliance. 

However far along the compliance road the organisation is, there is no better time to focus on making sure the entire ecosystem is secure and compliant than now.

Sometimes compliance can feel a bit daunting, but there’s no need to boil the ocean. Get started by breaking the project up into digestible chunks of action and start with the low-hanging fruit. 

 

Review and rejig

Start by reviewing the compliance processes already in place. 

Even if there…

Read More…

The Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) aims to defend Australia from global threats through the provision of foreign signals intelligence, cyber security and offensive cyber operations, as directed by Government.

ASD provides the Australian Government with intelligence and cyber security expertise, policy and advice that protects our national security and sovereignty, and practical support that informs law enforcement and military operations.

In its 2019-2020 Corporate Plan, ASD provides insight into its functions, strategic plans, operating context and oversight framework.

Functions

ASD operates under the Intelligence Services Act 2001, which specifies that its functions are to:

• collect and communicate foreign signals intelligence;
• prevent and disrupt offshore cyber enabled crime;
• provide cyber security advice and assistance to Australian governments, businesses and individuals;
• support military operations;
• assist the national security community in the performance of its functions

Strategic Plan and Objectives

ASD has set 5 key strategic objectives for the duration of its corporate plan, which will help it to fulfil its purpose and achieve its vision of being a…

Read More…