As we look back on the past year in cyber security, it's clear that 2022 was a challenging year for businesses in Australia. A number of high-profile data breaches made headlines, affecting thousands of individuals and causing significant financial losses for the companies involved.

One of the most notable breaches of the year occurred in the retail sector, with Target Australia falling victim to a sophisticated cyber attack. The attackers were able to gain access to the company's systems and steal personal information, including credit card details, from millions of customers. This breach affected over 5 million customers, leading to a loss of trust and significant financial losses for the company.

Another major breach took place in the healthcare sector, with Medibank falling victim to a ransomware attack. The attackers were able to encrypt sensitive patient data and demand a large ransom payment in exchange for the decryption key. This breach affected over 2 million patients and resulted in a significant disruption to the hospital's operations.

In addition to these breaches, the telecommunications company Optus also suffered a data breach in 2022, in which personal information of nearly 200,000 customers was accessed by unauthorized individuals. This included sensitive information such as addresses and passport details.

These high-profile breaches serve as a reminder of the importance of strong cyber security measures for businesses. However, it's not just large corporations that are at risk - small and medium-sized businesses are also vulnerable to cyber attacks.

This also seemed to spur on interest from our website visitors, with our IT User and Cyber Security Policy template topping the list of our most popular blogs for 2022.

Hot on the heels of the template was our guide on How often should a business replace their computers it came in just one page view behind.

Next up was a perennial favourite of our readers, with our blog on the Benefits of an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) for your business this blog has consistently been in the top 3 for the past 5 years, only just recently being edged out of the number 1 spot in 2022 as we experience more of a focus on cyber security strategy within business operations. A UPS of course, does fall into this category with the critical part it plays in disaster recovery.

Microsoft Bookings surged in popularity to take out the number 4 spot, we covered Microsoft Bookings as part of our Tech Tips series.  Bookings includes a web-based booking calendar and integrates with Outlook to optimise your staff’s calendar and give your customers flexibility to book a time that works best for them. It is unsurprising that the increase in popularity has coincided with growing remote working arrangements, even after the peak of the COVID-19 outbreak.

And rounding out the top 5 is How to upload staff photos in bulk to Office 365 for CodeTwo email automatic signatures. This is one of our earliest blogs and like the UPS blog has consistently been in the top 5. With the title being pretty self explanatory it covers off uploading staff photos to 365 to allow them to be displayed on the CodeTwo signature template for your business. 

In conclusion, the year 2022 has been a reminder that cyber security is an ongoing battle and it appears as though our readers know that too judging by our blogs popularity. It is important for businesses to stay vigilant and take proactive measures to protect their systems and data from cyber threats. By implementing strong security measures and training employees on best practices, companies can reduce their risk of falling victim to a data breach and minimize the impact of a successful attack.

To keep your data secure and improve your privacy on the internet, it's important to take a multi-layered approach to cyber security. This includes:

• Implementing strong passwords and multi-factor authentication for all accounts
• Regularly updating software and keeping all systems up-to-date
• Training employees on best practices for cyber security
• Conducting regular security audits and vulnerability assessments
• Investing in a comprehensive security solution that includes firewalls, intrusion detection and prevention systems, and anti-virus software
• Having a disaster recovery plan in place

It is also recommended to have a cyber insurance in place to cover the cost of investigations, legal fees, and customer notification in case of data breaches.  We highly recommend checking out ourguide on  14 ways to protect your business from a cyber attack.

Stay tuned for more informative blogs in 2023 and if you would like to know more about any of our services just give us a call on 1300 778 078.