Cyberspace ‘a battleground’ as reports of cybercrime in Australia jump 13%

The ASD’s Australian Cyber Security Centre received 76,000 reports of cybercrime in the 2021-22 financial year, or an average of one every seven minutes. Photograph: solarseven/Getty Images/iStockphoto

The number of reports of cybercrime in Australia had shot up by 13% to 76,000 in a year, or one every seven minutes, even before a series of high-profile privacy breaches hit the headlines.

These threats are imposing an increasingly heavy cost on businesses, with the average loss per cybercrime rising by 14% to $39,000 for a small business and $62,000 for a large business.