MYOB Business Monitor: More businesses to click and connect

MYOB CEO Greg Ellis says digital adoption is a no-brainer for businesses. Source: Supplied The Australian, January 19, 2021 Digital enablement and improvement will be a focus for most SMEs in the new year with young business owners driving the trend. Forty per cent of Gen Y (aged 25-39)-operated businesses achieved more profitability in the past 12 months compared to …

‘Hoodwinked’: SMEs have lost $142 million to 4,255 email scams in the past year

SmartCompany, November 24, 2020 Small businesses are experiencing a rise in cyber attacks, with 4,255 reported incidents of email compromise scams in the 2019-20 financial year, costing over $142 million, according to the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC). Cyber criminals use business email compromise (BEC) scams, involving email, instant message, SMS and social media tactics, to fraudulently access the money …

SMEs are most at risk of email account compromise: Three ways to protect your business

SmartCompany, October 16, 2020 Source: Unsplash/Stephen Phillips. The pandemic has seen a lot of us change our ways of working — cyber criminals included, who have adjusted their targets and intensified their focus on low-hanging fruit. In fact, new research by global association ISACA indicates that only 51% of technology professionals and leaders are highly confident that their cyber security …

Facebook’s about-face

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before a US committee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law.The Australian, September 23, 2020 There will be no face off against Facebook this Friday. The social network has refused to front a federal parliamentary inquiry into foreign influence on social media. How curious! After pushing back their evidence from August to September, Mark Zuckerberg’s Aussie …

Sorry Google, you don’t get to play the small business card

SmartCompany, August 21, 2020 Source: Pixabay So Google fancies itself a champion of small businesses, ey? Such would be the implication of a sabre-rattling campaign it launched against an ACCC media bargaining code this week, in which threats range from slapping a price on Google’s free services to creating “dramatically worse” search results for Aussie users. The US$1.06 trillion dollar …

Scammers reap $5.2 million from WA businesses left vulnerable during COVID-19

The West Australian, Wed, 19 August 2020 Hackers are using increasingly sophisticated ploys to target WA businesses. Credit: Unknown/Getty Images WA businesses have been scammed millions of dollars through increasingly sophisticated ploys this year as hackers capitalise on vulnerabilities exposed by COVID-19. At Bankwest, businesses were the worst affected by online cons, losing almost $5.2 million between January and July. …

‘Free services at risk’: Google warns search will suffer under ACCC media code in sabre-rattling letter

SmartCompany, August 17, 2020 Multinational technology giant Google has threatened a “dramatically worse Google Search” to Australian businesses and consumers under a new bargaining code that would force it to cough up cash to media outlets. In an extraordinary open letter published on Monday, the US-headquartered company warned the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC)’s code of conduct “would put …

Business must do more for customers’ cyber security, panel warns

Financial Review, Jul 21, 2020 Businesses should take more responsibility to ensure the cyber protection of their customers, an influential industry panel advising the federal government on its cyber-security strategy has said. The panel called for a more offensive strategy, asking for clear consequences for malicious cyber activity and calling out the source of attacks. It recommended the Australian Cyber …

PM reveals major state-backed cyber attack

‘Very clear the PM is calling out Beijing’’ reported The Australian on 19 June 2020: Australian Strategic Policy Institute executive director Peter Jennings told The Australian it was “very clear” that China was behind the cyber attack and that Scott Morrison was calling Beijing out. “I think you’ve got to sort of go through a check list of factors, which …