Several small businesses have already taken advantage of the Cyber Wardens initiative, including in agribusiness. Image: stockbusters – stock.adobe.com
The Cyber Wardens program is a crucial step in ensuring small businesses can mitigate cyber risks and focus on their growth and success without the looming threat of cyber attacks. Food & Beverage Industry News reports.
Cyber Wardens is an initiative of the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA), supported by the Australian Government and an industry alliance led by Telstra, CommBank, and the Australian Cyber Security Centre.
The free program aims to equip small businesses with the knowledge necessary to protect themselves against cyber threats, which continue to grow in frequency and complexity.
By completing the Cyber Wardens course, small businesses will gain the tools needed to help safeguard their data, as well as their clients’ and suppliers’ data.
One food and beverage business who has already taken advantage of the Cyber Wardens course and started to reap the benefits is Tunnel Hill Mushrooms.
Dean Smith, owner of Tunnel Hill Mushrooms, said he didn’t have much time to worry about cyber security and use to assume small businesses weren’t the main target of cyber criminals.
“You always hear about the big companies being held for ransom or whatever. But that’s not the case,’’
he said.
“I guess I was a bit naive about the whole thing, because I’m not that tech savvy and I don’t really have a lot of time to keep an eye on it.”
After completing the Cyber Wardens course, Dean expressed a new-found appreciation for the real risks cyber criminals pose to small businesses in
the food and beverage sector.
Although Dean was already confident in his ability to spot email scams or emails that seemed “too good to be true,” he now feels more assured about the additional steps he can take to better protect his business.
“I think a lot of people will be like me, either they’re not too confident, or don’t have the time, or find it a bit daunting,” he said.
“But it’s not that hard and it doesn’t take a lot of time to put a few things in play that will protect your business.”
The Cyber Wardens course demonstrated to Smith the importance of taking regular and calculated steps to improve his business’ cyber security
“I am one of those people who in the past has had the same two or three passwords for everything,” he said.
“The Cyber Wardens training is an important reminder that making strong, unique passwords is a quick and easy way to protect your business.”
Dean said the Cyber Wardens course helped him realise that taking steps to protect your small business from cyber attacks is not that daunting
“It doesn’t take a lot of time to put a few things in play that will protect your business and I think if I can do it, I think anybody can do it.”
Meanwhile, another prime example of the importance of Cyber Wardens is Future Swirl’s story. Founded in 2022 the small business has already faced cyber security attacks and found the training critical to help defend against future attacks.
“I’ve had my business credit cards skimmed in business identification number (BIN) attacks on two occasions and thousands of dollars were stolen,” said Future Swirl founder
Maddalena Easterbrook.
“You put your blood, sweat and tears into your business and want it to succeed. If it was to all unravel because I didn’t put in the necessary, cyber security measures — I’d be devastated.”
The frightening experience helped highlight to Easterbrook the importance of being vigilant against cyber threats, even for small businesses.
“Doing the Cyber Wardens
course has been so helpful to inform our company policies and looking around our business to minimise
cyber risks,” she said.
“We’re focussed on enabling multi-factor authentication, being cautious about who has access to what accounts, thinking twice about the links we click on, and monitoring emails being sent and received.”
With cyber protections now in place, Maddalena can focus on her business’s major goals, confident that cyber criminals won’t interfere.
Agribusiness, which plays a vital role in food and beverage manufacturing, is also at constant threat of cyber security attacks, making constant vigilance and employing the right protections supremely important.
Farm technology potentially impacted includes automated machinery, drones, sensors on the farm, cameras scanning conveyor belts, batch tracking in production, and digital finance management systems essential to agribusinesses.
Farmers and producers across livestock, cropping, and horticulture have always faced diverse risks and challenges, from weather events and seasonal factors to pests, biosecurity, supply chains, and staffing.
While the increasing use of internet-based technology offers many benefits for agribusinesses, it also introduces a growing cyber security risk that must be managed.
COSBOA CEO Luke Achterstraat urges all small agribusinesses across Australia to prioritise cyber security.
“Regional and rural small businesses are the backbones of many communities in Australia. Cyber risk is pervasive and doesn’t discriminate based on a business’s postcode,” he said
“Small businesses must remain aware of the increasingly acute risk of cyber attacks. COSBOA’s Cyber Wardens program can help give small business owners the skills to mitigate the risks.
“Investing in cyber security training and tools is essential to help protect your small business, staff and clients. With Cyber Wardens we’ve made that training free and easy for small businesses.”
Get your free and simple cyber security training at www. cyberward-ens.com.au/enrol/enrol-now-food-and-beverage/.
Key Insights for small business:
- 43 per cent of cyber-crime targets small business.
- Every 6 minutes a cyber-crime is reported in Australia (increased 23 per cent in 2023)
- $46,000 per attack is the average cost to a small business of cyber crime30 per cent drop in customers following an attack.
- 80 per cent annual increase in cyber insurance.
- 70 per cent of small businesses have received a suspicious SMS, email, or phone call
- Four out of five small businesses are at serious cyber risk
- 17 per cent have had their data leaked
- 10 per cent have experienced their passwords or accounts hacked
- Multi-factor authentication absent in 50 per cent of small business cyber defences
