Cybercrime Incident Costs Triple for Australian Enterprises

The latest Annual Cyber Threat Report from the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) revealed that the average cost of a cybercrime incident to large Australian businesses has more than tripled year on year.  

This alarming surge reflects not just the growing sophistication of cybercriminals, but also the expanding attack surface of enterprise systems and the rising stakes of data breaches in an increasingly digitised economy. 

Why Average Costs are Skyrocketing 

Several converging factors explain the dramatic escalation in financial impact. 

High-Value Assets: Large businesses hold vast troves of sensitive data — customer records, intellectual property, financial systems. These are prime targets for ransomware and data exfiltration. Cybercriminals are increasingly tailoring attacks to exploit these assets, demanding higher ransoms and causing deeper operational disruption. 

Supply Chain Vulnerabilities: Enterprises often rely on complex ecosystems of vendors, partners, and third-party platforms. A breach in one node can cascade across the network, amplifying the damage and complicating response efforts. 

Regulatory Penalties and Legal Exposure: Stricter data protection laws mean that businesses can incur hefty fines and legal liabilities for a breach. The reputational fallout can also erode customer trust and shareholder value. 

Extended Downtime and Recovery Costs: Cyber incidents often cripple critical infrastructure, leading to prolonged outages, lost productivity, and expensive recovery operations. For large businesses, even a few hours of downtime can translate into millions in losses. 

According to the ACSC, the average cost per incident for large organisations has surged from to over AUD $202,000 in just one year.  It’s a stark reminder that reactive security is no longer sufficient. 

MFT: A Strategic Shield  

One of the most overlooked yet powerful tools in the cybersecurity arsenal is Managed File Transfer (MFT). Unlike ad hoc file sharing methods such as email attachments, cloud drives, or FTP, MFT provides a secure, auditable, and policy-driven framework for exchanging sensitive data. 

Here’s how MFT — such as the class leading GoAnywhere MFT — helps businesses reduce cybercrime exposure. 

End-to-End Encryption: MFT platforms encrypt data both in transit and at rest, ensuring that even if intercepted, the contents remain unreadable to unauthorised persons. 

Access Control and Authentication: Granular permissions, multi-factor authentication, and role-based access prevent unauthorised users from accessing or manipulating files. 

Automated Workflows and Monitoring: MFT systems can automate file transfers with built-in logging and alerts, reducing human error and enabling rapid detection of anomalies. 

Compliance and Audit Trails: MFT solutions often include detailed audit logs and compliance reporting features, helping organisations meet regulatory requirements and demonstrate due diligence in the event of an incident. 

Reduced Shadow IT: By centralising file transfers within a secure platform, MFT reduces the risk of employees using unapproved tools that bypass corporate security controls. 

From Reactive to Resilient 

As cyber threats grow in scale and complexity, large businesses need to shift from reactive defence to proactive resilience. This makes investing in secure infrastructure like Managed File Transfer more than a mere technical upgrade. 

GoAnywhere enables further resilience by providing High Availability and Failover through active-active clustering, enabling multiple GoAnywhere installations to work together in a distributed environment.  This way, if one node fails or is compromised, other nodes seamlessly continue processing file transfers and workflows, minimising downtime and maintaining service continuity.  

The tripling of cybercrime costs is a wake-up call. By securing the channels through which data flows, organisations can close critical gaps, reduce breach likelihood, and contain the “blast radius” when incidents occur. In a landscape where every file could be a vector and every transfer a risk, MFT offers the control, visibility, and security that modern enterprises need. 

Standing By to Help 

At Generic Systems Australia, we’re Australia and New Zealand’s experts in helping business take advantage of GoAnywhere’s many capabilities.  We’ve assisted dozens of organisations to make their file transfers resilient, secure and reliable — boosting their efficiency in the process. 

If you’d like to discuss how we can deliver these advantages to your organisation, please feel welcome to get in touch with me. I’m always happy to have an obligation-free chat and explain how easily we can transition you from your current approach to a new world of cyber security and productivity.   

At Generic Systems Australia, we’re your local experts in data transfer.