ASPI Webinar: Exfiltrate, encrypt, extort: The global rise of ransomware & Australia's policy options

As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept across the world, another, less visible, epidemic has occurred concurrently – a tsunami of cyber-crime with global losses totalling more than US$1 trillion. While rampant in scale and diverse in form, there is one typology of cyber-crime that presents a unique threat to businesses and governments the world over: Ransomware. 

Please join us online on Tuesday 13 July at 5.30pm for the launch of the ASPI International Cyber Policy Centre’s latest report on the global rise of ransomware and Australia’s policy options.

While some of the most spectacular ransomware attacks have occurred offshore, Australia has not been immune. Over the past 18 months, major logistics company Toll Holdings Ltd has been hit twice; Nine Entertainment was brought to its knees by an attack that saw the company struggle to televise news bulletins and produce newspapers; multiple health and aged care providers across the country have been hit; and global meat supplies were impacted after Australian and international operations of the world’s largest meat producer JBS Foods were brought to a standstill. It is likely other organisations have also been hit but have kept it out of the public spotlight.

Authored by Rachael Falk and Anne-Louise Brown from Australia’s Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre, this report argues the current policy vacuum makes Australia an attractive market for these attacks and ransomware is a problem that will only get worse unless a concerted and strategic domestic effort to thwart these attacks is developed. Developing a strategy now is essential. Not only are Australian organisations viewed as lucrative targets – due to their often low cyber security posture – they are also seen as soft targets. The number of attacks will continue to grow unless urgent action is taken to reduce the incentives to target Australian companies and other entities.   

This policy report will address key areas in Australia where new policies and strategies and improved guidance is needed and also where better support for cyber security uplift can be achieved.

Join report authors Rachael Falk and Anne-Louise Brown for a discussion on the report’s findings and policy options available moderated by Fergus Hanson, Director of ASPI’s International Cyber Policy Centre.