Cybercrime in Australia has been on the rise for years, but Optus and Medibank have been wake-up calls

Australian businesses regularly report cyber-attacks but don’t always publicise them when it’s not clear customer data was compromised. Photograph: Boonchai Wedmakawand/Getty Images

It might seem like data breaches are occurring more frequently than ever in the wake of the Optus cyber-attack, but while cybercrime incidents are constantly on the rise, Australia isn’t really a hot new target.

Since Optus first disclosed its massive data breach at the end of September, breaches or attacks have been reported by Medibank, Woolworths’ MyDeal, EnergyAustralia, Vinomofo and Medlab.