CA ANZ steps up in fight against cyber crime

Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CA ANZ) have released a new hub and playbook designed to help small businesses “prevent, prepare for and recover” from cyber attacks.

CEO Ainslie van Onselen said the hub and playbook provides members with practical steps to build a cyber security strategy and self-assessment tool as SMEs are most at risk as they are “least mature” in regard to cyber security risks.

“Cyber crime comes in many different forms, from fraud and identify theft, right through to romance scams and malware attacks. When it comes to cyber crime, it’s a matter of when, not if, someone will try something against your business,” Ms van Onselen said.

“That’s why it’s incredibly important that SMEs take the opportunity to review their cyber plan, put proper processes and procedures in place, and invest in best-practice cyber security.”

Ms van Onselen added that because cyber crime can come in a number of different ways, as well as the accelerated adoption of technology within financial services, SMEs must be prepared.

“Too few organisations plan to prevent cyber incidents, respond and recover from them, and as a result they suffer. The other thing that SMEs don’t do well is communicate that cyber security is a team effort and a team responsibility,” she said.

“All employees and contractors need to take responsibility for the data, software and devices they use at work, because it takes just one person to bring down an entire network through a simple error.” 

The hub and playbook releases follows a recent episode of the ifa Show podcast, where Shane Bell, cyber partner at specialist advisory and restructuring firm, McGrathNicol, suggested that cyber security should be a top three issue for financial advisers and their businesses.

“Technology is embedded in everything that we're doing. And for that reason, cyber security has to be in some of the top risks that you're considering,” Mr Bell said.

“And so if that's your starting position, which I think it should be, then I don't think it has to be about choosing between cyber and something else. I think if you've got a good risk culture, then it's about connecting cyber up to that.”

Listen to the full podcast with Mr Bell here.

Neil Griffiths

Neil is the Deputy Editor of the wealth titles, including ifa and InvestorDaily.

Neil is also the host of the ifa show podcast.