One in 10 Australian organisations have lost more than $1 million after falling victim to cyber crime in the past two years. This was a key finding of PwC’s Global Economic Crime Survey released today on economic crime in Australia. It found that cyber crime was the second most frequent economic crime experienced by organisations in Australia and abroad. Asset misappropriation was the most frequent with procurement fraud ranking third. One third (33 per cent) of all economic crimes in 2014 were cyber attacks, up from 30 per cent in 2012. Almost half (43 per cent) of the organisations surveyed ranked the theft or loss or personal identifiable information as the number one concern should a cyber crime attack occur. A further 33 per cent were most concerned about the theft of intellectual property or data in general. PwC partner Richard Bergman said cyber crime is not just an IT issue. “Recent high profile data breaches such as the US Target breach have increased the level of awareness and concern among senior management and the board. But the majority of cyber crime incidents still don’t make the headlines. “Information is valuable and attackers are determined to get it. Many of the attacks we’ve recently investigated have targeted merger acquisition information, and what surprises many organisations is how long attackers are inside their networks before the attack occurs,” Bergman said. The report also said determining who is accountable for cyber across organisations needs to be addressed. Recent cyber breaches have seen senior executives standing down as well as CIOs, the report said. The report found all forms of economic crime are up, with 57 per cent of Australian companies reporting an incident in the past two years. Globally, the number of incidents reported was lower at 32 per cent and in the Asia-Pacific region only 37 per cent. Related content brandpost Sponsored by Freshworks When your AI chatbots mess up AI ‘hallucinations’ present significant business risks, but new types of guardrails can keep them from doing serious damage By Paul Gillin Dec 08, 2023 4 mins Generative AI brandpost Sponsored by Dell New research: How IT leaders drive business benefits by accelerating device refresh strategies Security leaders have particular concerns that older devices are more vulnerable to increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks. By Laura McEwan Dec 08, 2023 3 mins Infrastructure Management case study Toyota transforms IT service desk with gen AI To help promote insourcing and quality control, Toyota Motor North America is leveraging generative AI for HR and IT service desk requests. By Thor Olavsrud Dec 08, 2023 7 mins Employee Experience Generative AI ICT Partners feature CSM certification: Costs, requirements, and all you need to know The Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) certification sets the standard for establishing Scrum theory, developing practical applications and rules, and leading teams and stakeholders through the development process. By Moira Alexander Dec 08, 2023 8 mins Certifications IT Skills Project Management Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe