Indeed since the outbreak of COVID-19, Australia has recorded over 3,600 scam reports mentioning the coronavirus with over $2,382,000 in reported losses, according to the ACSC.
In addition, the Australian government reported on ongoing malicious activity targeting Australian organisations across a range of sectors, including all levels of government, industry, political organisations, education, health, essential service providers and operators of other critical infrastructure in June.
While more organisations increasingly understand how important cyber-security is, the current challenges ahead for the industry and its impact on Australia continue to enhance the evolving complexity of cyber-security.
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Cyber-security skills shortage
Pressure on the number of available of cyber-security professionals needed to deal with such threats was already underway well before the current COVID-19 crisis hit.
The Australian Cyber Security Growth Network estimated that Australia may need around 16,600 additional cyber security workers for technical as well as non-technical positions by 2026.
This spike in specialist cyber-security talent demand has been mirrored by big banks, technology giants and niche info security companies and is also reflected in recent IT recruitment trends observed by Robert Half.
The most in-demand IT roles during the current pandemic include Security Consultant, IT Security Manager and Chief Information Security Officer alongside higher volumes of requests for Heads of Compliance, Risk Managers and IT Audit Managers – all demonstrating the importance of risk assurance and threat mitigation during these turbulent times.
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How important is cyber-security in Australia?
More professional services organisations transitioned to offsite servers and increased the use of mobile or personal devices to conduct business operations, resulting in the decentralisation of existing commercial cyber-security protocols. This created greater national exposure to security risks and cyber-crime.
Similarly, primary and service industries automated processes to reduce human handling and digitised reporting procedures to ensure compliance with new hygiene and safety protocols, which fuelled a greater reliance on cloud software to conduct regular operations.
As a result, cyber-attacks and data fraud owing to the abrupt adoption of new working patterns are considered the most likely technological risks of COVID-19 for organisations across the globe, cited by almost one in four (38%) top risk professionals, according to this recent analysis by the World Economic Forum (WEF).
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The future of cyber-security
With large numbers of employees continuing to access and deal with sensitive customer and client information whilst working remotely, IT security professionals will remain critical for ensuring that companies maintain safe and secure working practices as we continue into the ‘new normal’.
Whether it’s exploring further ways of making remote work more efficient and convenient by bolstering data handling protocols, enhancing IT system and Desktop as a Service (DaaS) Solutions to enable more flexible use of at-office and remote working environments, bringing cloud-based collaboration platforms online and/or developing, testing and deploying e-commerce tools, as examples, finding the right tech skills will remain a priority for companies looking to gain the competitive edge in an increasingly digitised business environment over coming months.
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Robert Half has access to a strong network of interim and permanent technology professionals across Australia who are ready to help your organisation meet its rapidly changing IT and remote working needs. Contact us today.
