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Australia experienced a 169 per cent increase in automated bot attacks in 2022, according to a new cyber security report.
A report by analytics firm LexisNexis revealed that Australia received a startling increase in attempted cyber breaches from internet bots, as well as a 26 per cent increase in human-driven attacks.
Taking place between January to December 2022, the attacks on Australia come as neighbouring Asia experiences a downturn in automated attacks.
Writing in its Cybercrime Report, LexisNexis claimed that while much of the fraud seen in Australia may be domestic in origin, but there are clear links to fraud rings operating internationally.
This, according to LexisNexis, suggests that bot networks are diversifying and are possibly looking to originate from places not previously associated with bots, to try to bypass some basic bot mitigation methods.
Overall, the volume of attacks in Australia is low compared to the Asia Pacific average. However, it is growing more rapidly than the regional average, likely due to the availability of significant volumes of breached data in 2022, the report said.
Of the 722 million transactions analysed by LexisNexis, 70 per cent were initiated from a mobile phone and a quarter used a mobile application, as opposed to a desktop and web browser.
In terms of actual attacks, there was a close split with 52 per cent of attacks using desktops and 48 per cent using mobile phones.
Last year, Optus and Medibank found themselves caught in firestorms after being breached with millions of customers' data falling into cyber criminals' hands.
" In recent years, these data breaches have threatened nearly every corporation and everyone in the country," the report added.
However, a recent report by analyst firm ISG claimed that Australian organisations are now taking an “assume breach” approach to cyber security. In doing so, ISG claimed, they are recognising that not all breaches can be prevented and are focusing on rapid detection and response.
