Australian business face more cyber attacks than any of its APAC neighbours, according to Cisco’s 2018 Asia Pacific Security Capabilities Benchmark Studies.

The study – which reviewed 11 countries – revealed that Australia is the nation most under attack with 90 per cent of Australian companies reporting they receive up to 5,000 threats a day.

Of those, 33 per cent of Australian companies polled said they deal with 100,000 to 150,000 threats a day, while seven per cent are seeing more than 500,000 threats each day.

Each breach carries a large financial impact to businesses – with the cost of an attack in Australia ranking the most expensive in Asia Pacific region. Of those enterprises surveyed, 52 per cent claim breaches cost anywhere between US$1 million to US$5 million USD, while nine per cent claim the cost was more than US$10 million.

Australia experiences more cyber fatigue

This includes costs from lost revenue, loss of customers, and out of pocket expenses caused by a cybersecurity breach.

Despite the financial impact of an attack, 69 per cent of respondents  experienced cyber fatigue,  giving up trying to stay ahead of malicious attackers. “This is well above the worldwide figure of 46 per cent,” said the firm.

According to Cisco, the survey showed that more needs to be done to equip, educate and support businesses and security professionals across Australia against a cyberattack.

“The results of the study highlight both the scale and complexity of the challenge faced by Australian companies in the current cybersecurity landscape,” added Cisco ANZ director of cyber security Steve Moros.

Multiple vendors create a complex and fragmented approach

The study also found that the use of multiple vendors and products is making monitoring cybersecurity threats more complicated. Across the region, over half of surveyed organisations (72 per cent) work with more than 10 security vendors, while 12 per cent say they have more than 50 vendors in their businesses. This creates an added layer of complexity and increases vulnerability, as having different security products can lengthen the time to detect and contain a breach.

“In order to achieve best cyber practice, everyone from government to vendors, educational institutes to independent bodies, need to collaborate, share information and threat intelligence. When it comes to cyber security, businesses cannot afford to work in silos.

“Businesses need to raise awareness about the issue, have proper processes in place and deploy the right technologies to help identify, block or remediate against any malicious attacks. Finally, we need to develop local cybersecurity talent so that we have the skills to support the country’s digital drive in a sustainable manner. It’s not a problem that can be tackled in isolation but one we need to tackle as a country,” Moros added.