Cyber update – protection gap widens for SMEs

The paper, Cyber Protection Gap Widens for SMEs, follows two years of several high-profile cyber incidents, an uptick in reported cybercrime, and a raft of government responses and regulation tightening.

Through research and interviews with industry stakeholders, the authors explore the major cyber challenges, impacts and what can be done for SMEs in corporate Australia. It finds that compared to big corporates SMEs have not had similar bandwidth or resources to devote to their cyber security.

The paper revisits the rapidly shifting threat landscape and how it’s changed since the Institute’s 2022 report, Cyber Risk and the Role of Insurance, also by Win-Li and Michael, with Taylor Fry Director Ross Simmonds.

In this latest release, the authors advise that “bridging the cyber protection gap for SMEs will require continued (and relentless) collaboration and effort across government and the insurance industry, as well as within the small business community and the providers of technology solutions that support them”.

They offer five recommendations towards reducing the gap:

1. Continue to strengthen national cyber defences
2. Evaluate and scale up education and upskilling initiatives
3. Make it easy for SMEs to show they take cyber seriously
4. Consider SMEs’ unique cyber challenges in the upcoming round of Privacy Act changes
5. Keep the dialogue open between government, the insurance industry and small business.

Visit the Actuaries Institute website to read the paper in full.