Following a spate of recent cyberattacks in New Zealand and Australia, Crombie Lockwood has reminded Kiwi businesses about the ever-present risk of cybercrime, especially through ransomware.
In September, hackers targeted Pinnacle Health and gained access to the data of around 450,000 patients, with said data made available on the dark web. Last year, the Waikato DHB also suffered a similar attack with patient and staff records leaked online.
There were also two major cyber attacks in Australia recently, with telecoms firm Optus being hit in September, compromising the data of 10 million customers. According to Crombie Lockwood, this was the largest ransomware attack in Australia’s history, and the hackers initially demanded a ransom of AU$1 million in cryptocurrency. Less than a month later, major Australian health insurer Medibank was also targeted, with the hackers threatening to publish medical records of high-profile individuals unless the ransom is paid.
“The growing trend in cyber crime means no business can consider itself immune from an attack and extortion demand in exchange for their data,” Crombie Lockwood said. “As ransomware attackers continue to refine and intensify their attacks, the threat to business operations has spread to supply chains, customers and email contacts.”
According to the brokerage, ransomware attacks can happen to any size or type of business. Whether or not a business chooses to pay a ransom, the financial costs can prove to be very expensive. Some of these costs include business interruption, investigation and notification, third-party liability claims and rebuilding efforts. Companies that are hit can also suffer loss of customer trust and reputational damage, which can affect future income.
Crombie Lockwood cited Cybersecurity Ventures Global, a global cybersecurity researcher, which said that ransomware damage costs are predicted to exceed US$265 billion by 2031, with an attack occurring every two seconds.
As disruption and business costs continue to rise, companies and governments are looking for additional ways to strengthen their cyber defences. New Zealand recently participated in the second annual summit of the International Counter Ransomware Initiative – a global effort of 36 countries working together to improve their resilience against ransomware.
“Businesses should strongly consider having cyber insurance that covers the major demands of a ransomware attack, as responding to such an attack, even without paying a ransom, can have a significant financial impact,” Crombie Lockwood said. “Cyber insurance also covers a company for other cyber events, such as malware, distributed denial-of-service or DDoS attacks, data loss and privacy breaches.”
