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< News The Hardest Question About Your Organisation’s Cybersecurity 18 June 2024 It’s the question every IT manager dreads. “How did you let this happen?!” And the worst time to be asked it is after your organisation has become the latest victim of a cybercrime. Here’s how to avoid it ever being asked… Anxiety Rising Boardroom anxiety about the protection of customer data has been growing across the country. High profile incidents such as the ransomware attacks on Optus and Medibank Private have sensitised the senior leaders to both the risks and costs of negligence. CEOs and CIOs are being quizzed: “Is our organisation doing enough to avoid becoming the next negative headline?” Incidents Rising The most recent report by the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) showed that cyber attacks are happening far more frequently. On average, a new report is received every six minutes - a 23% increase year on year. One in 5 critical vulnerabilities was exploited within a mere 48 hours. The ASD warned that cybercriminals are constantly evolving their operations against Australian organisations, fuelled by a global industry of access brokers and extortionists. Thousands of businesses failed to fulfil their obligation to protect sensitive customer data, and millions of Australians had their information leaked on the dark web. Costs Rising Also troubling the C-suite is that the costs to businesses of “cyber negligence” are escalating rapidly. The ASD says the cost of cybercrime to businesses has increased by 14% compared to the previous financial year. However, direct financial losses are just one part of the broader costs of “cyber negligence”. For example, Medibank Private’s share price plunged more than 20% in the weeks following its loss of the personal information of 9.7m Australians. The company is facing class actions by both shareholders and consumers alleging breaches of the company’s duty of care to protect consumer information, manage risks and make timely disclosures to shareholders. Optus Communications saw its customer growth halved after its systems were breached. A class action by Slater and Gordon alleges that “Optus failed to protect, or take reasonable steps to protect, the personal information of its current and former customers”. In response to rising consumer concerns, Australia’s Attorney-General, Mark Dreyfus, has flagged “better laws to regulate how companies manage the huge amount of data they collect, and bigger penalties to incentivise better behaviour”. Reflecting the growing risks and costs of cybercrime, cyber insurance premiums are also rising. Email: the Critical Vulnerability According to the Australian Signals Directorate, Business Email Compromise (BEC) remains a key vector for conducting cybercrime. A form of email fraud, cybercriminals target organisations and scam them out of money or goods by tricking employees into revealing important business information, often by impersonating trusted senders. BEC can also involve a cybercriminal gaining access to a business email address and then sending out spear phishing emails to clients and customers for information or payment. IT Managers Stepping Up Responding to these trends, responsible IT Managers are increasingly focussed on preventing their organisations from becoming the next headline victim of cybercrime. In a survey conducted recently by Tenable, IT leaders said that, while the ability to respond to and recover from cyber incidents remained essential, they’re now focusing more on preventing such incidents altogether. The Best Answer to the Hard Question A proactive and layered strategy for storing, transferring and securing data is essential for keeping cyberthieves at bay. Secure managed file transfer, secure content engines, secure digital rights management, and employee education combine to create the optimal way to prevent data theft and cyber breaches. At Generic Systems Australia , we recommend the class-leading secure managed file transfer solution, GoAnywhere MFT , to keep data safe - at rest, and in transit. Coupled with our Advanced Threat Protection Bundle , we enable organisations to safely collaborate without exposing their systems to the risk of malware gaining a foothold within their IT systems. Seamless integration between GoAnywhere MFT and the Clearswift Secure ICAP Gateway provides anti-virus and malware protection, deep inspection of the content inspection, adaptive data loss prevention, and media type protection. Together, they provide three key defences. 1. Prevents file containing malware from being shared. GoAnywhere provides easy anti-virus protection through the Secure ICAP Gateway to scan all inbound file transfers. It can also detect and automatically strip out active content like embedded malware, triggered executables, scripts, or macros used to extract or hold sensitive data hostage. Advanced Threat Protection “sanitises” files and emails without delaying delivery, guarding against today's leading malware and ransomware (e.g. CryptoLocker, CryptoWall, TorrentLocker, Dridex Dyre, BlackEnergy, etc.) and tomorrow's even more sophisticated threat variants. 2. Blocks sensitive data from being shared. Files with Personal Identifiable Information or other sensitive data can be prevented from being transferred. GoAnywhere Threat Protection can inspect file contents, then stop and block files from being shared, based on policies you define. 3. Redacts sensitive information from files before transfer. Advanced Threat Protection can ensure sensitive data is neither transmitted nor received, detecting and/or removing geotags, document properties, email addresses, and other metadata from documents, and replacing sensitive text with asterisks. Using Optical Character Recognition, it can even remove text contained in scanned images. No question: 'Prevention' is Better than 'Cure' Cyber attacks are inevitable . However, falling victim to them is optional . If you’d like to learn more, and be able to comprehensively reassure your Board about the steps you’ve taken to protect your business’s data, reputation and bottom line, please feel welcome to get in touch with me, Bradley Copson ( mailto:bradley@gensys.com.au ). I’m always happy to have an obligation-free discussion, and even offer you a zero-cost Proof of Concept. At Generic Systems Australia , we’re your Local Experts in Secure Managed File Transfer. Previous Next

< News Zero Unforced Errors 29 Jan 2026 GoAnywhere Managed File Transfer executes your organisations data transfers with consistency and accuracy, eliminating the risks that come with manual processes. It automates complex workflows so your data moves reliably between systems, partners, and applications. Strong security controls protect files in transit and at rest, ensuring compliance with organisational and regulatory requirements. Centralised monitoring provides clear visibility into every transfer. At Generic Systems Australia, we have decades of experience installing and providing LOCAL support to organisations taking GoAnywhere MFT. If you'd like an obligation-free chat about how MFT could secure and speed your data transfers... hit us up! 😉 Previous Next

< News Companies ignoring hack warnings 4 Oct 2024 Almost half of the businesses warned by Australia’s top cyber security agency of impending hacks didn’t bother to return the phone call. In an alarming disclosure to The Australian Financial Review, the new director-general of the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), Abigail Bradshaw, said that the agency had contacted organisations 620 times in the last 12 months to tell them it had information “that suggests that you might have a problem”. But of those calls, 280 were never returned. Bradshaw said the agency shared such information because it had been shown to help companies to achieve positive outcomes in the face of escalating threats while enabling The ASD to detect more incidents. Sharing Encouraged The ASD’s alerts are part of a broader government plan to encourage more information sharing. New rules recently announced will permit businesses to share private details with government agencies without concern it will be used against them in future damages claims. That being said, regulators are still tightening the screws on directors and executives to take responsibility for cyber security prevention and recovery. The new laws won’t provide “immunity” for those who fail to prepare in the months or years leading up to a hack. Hacking: this century’s “H-Bomb” Not only is cybercrime financially lucrative for ransomware gangs, but digital attacks are becoming a critical component of geopolitical conflict, Bradshaw said. “The line between state-based actors and criminal actors is becoming finer,” she said. Cybercrime and conflict are set to escalate as quantum computing coupled with artificial intelligence supercharges hacking efforts. The US’s Pentagon described that emerging combination as “the 21st century’s equivalent of the nuclear bomb”. The Australian Financial Review warned that “if you get caught out by a cyberattack which causes broader harm, directors will not be able to talk their way out of trouble by saying they thought their techies had it covered”. Acting on ASD Alerts To mitigate hefty fines and sanctions, directors and executives need to prioritise their time and attention on cyber safety. A Managed File Transfer (MFT) solution such as GoAnywhere MFT can encrypt data at rest and in transit, complying with the highest data security standards. It manages inbound and outbound file transfers across an organisation, using industry-standard file transfer protocols and encryption to protect data in transit and at rest. Advanced Threat Protection and Adaptive Loss Prevention add a further layer of defence. SFT Threat Protection enables safe collaboration with external parties, preventing malware from entering an organisation, and reducing the risk of employees losing or mishandling sensitive data. Local Experts On Hand Generic Systems Australia are local experts in helping companies deploy Managed File Transfer and Advanced Threat Protection. We’ve assisted hundreds of organisations across Australia and New Zealand to secure their data and keep cybercriminals at bay. If you’d like to discuss how we can help you, please feel welcome to contact me, Bradley Copson. I’m always happy to have an obligation-free discussion, explain how simply we can transition you from outdated software and approaches, and offer you a zero-cost Proof of Concept. Previous Next

< News Give Your Data a Mandalorian‑level escort! 😉 19 May 2026 In The Mandalorian , every mission shares a common goal: protect Grogu at all costs. Whether he’s dodging bounty hunters or navigating hyperspace, Mando treats Grogu’s safety as non‑negotiable. In the world of business data, the stakes aren’t quite as galactic - but they are universal. Sensitive files, customer records, financial transfers all need the same unwavering protection. That’s where GoAnywhere MFT steps up. It’s the Beskar‑armoured guardian of your organisation’s data journeys. Instead of relying on scattered scripts, risky manual processes, or “hope for the best” casual file sharing, GoAnywhere provides a controlled, automated, fully auditable path from origin to destination. No ambushes. Just as Mando uses the right weapons to keep Grogu safe, GoAnywhere equips your business with secure protocols, encrypted workflows, centralised governance, and seamless integrations that make every transfer predictable and protected. Your data deserves a Mandalorian‑level escort. With GoAnywhere MFT, this is the way! At Generic Systems Australia, we're the nation's most experienced GoAnywhere provider. Get in touch if you’d like to explore MFT further. #cybersecurity #goanywhere #mft Previous Next

< News Why It’s Worth Migrating to a Better MFT 9 Dec 2025 Is your existing Managed File Transfer (MFT) solution failing to keep pace with modern security, efficiency and budgetary needs? Companies whose existing MFT solution no longer meets modern security, compliance, or usability needs should consider trading up to the world’s leading MFT solution, GoAnywhere MFT . GoAnywhere MFT makes migration straightforward with dedicated tools and services. The Case to Replace Organisations rely on Managed File Transfer to securely exchange sensitive data with partners, customers, and internal systems. However, some legacy solutions struggle to keep pace with today’s demands. Common reasons for replacement include: Volume Pricing Gotchas: some MFTs lure customers with seemingly low initial prices, only to rapidly increase costs as the number of users, or the amount and size of transfers, increase. Budgeting becomes difficult as their MFT licence grows ever more costly. Security Gaps: Some MFT tools lack advanced encryption, secure protocols, or modern authentication methods, leaving organisations exposed to cyber threats. New Compliance Requirements: Increasing government and industry regulation requires auditable, automated file transfer processes. Some MFT systems fall short in providing detailed logging and compliance reporting. Inefficiencies: Maintaining outdated solutions can be costly, requiring manual scripting and complex workarounds. This slows down IT teams and increases the risk of human error. Inadequate Scalability: As businesses grow, file transfer volumes increase. Legacy solutions may not scale effectively, leading to bottlenecks and downtime. Poor User Experience: Modern enterprises expect intuitive interfaces and automation. If the current solution is cumbersome, adoption and productivity suffer. Why GoAnywhere MFT? GoAnywhere MFT is a secure, automated, and user-friendly platform designed to address the deficiencies of competitor MFTs. It offers: Transparent pricing with no surprises as user volumes increase. The licencing model is Server/Node based and has been since the solution’s inception. Centralised management of all file transfers, reducing complexity. Automation features like scheduling, alerting, and workflows to eliminate manual intervention. High availability and scalability , ensuring reliable performance even under heavy loads. Compliance-ready reporting with detailed audit trails. Integration capabilities with cloud services, APIs, and enterprise applications. Easy Migration A common concern of companies considering a switch to a better MFT is the potential for disruption. But at Generic Systems Australia, we alleviate this directly through our comprehensive Migration Services . Our technical experts can quickly and efficiently install GoAnywhere MFT and then configure it to replace all your existing scripts, integration packages and other file transfer middleware. This way, you and your team can keep on doing what you do best – free of distractions – while we do what we do best. Our Migration Services enable you to transition from outdated, inefficient or expensive solutions without risking operational delays. Whether transitioning from in-house processes or another MFT vendor, GoAnywhere provides a structured path to adoption. Make the Move With GoAnywhere MFT from Generic Systems Australia, migration is not only achievable but also streamlined through expert guidance and automation – all available from local technical experts who are the best in their field. At Generic Systems Australia, we’re Oceania’s experts in File Transfer solutions. Previous Next

< News 'Twas the Week Before Christmas... 16 Dec 2024 Previous Next

< News Ransomware payments no guarantee 3 Oct 2025 Paying a ransomware demand is no guarantee that your precious business data will be restored. Research by Veeam found that fewer and fewer companies are actually getting their data back after a ransomware attack. For them, paying the ransom merely makes the full cost of business recovery even greater. Veeam found that only about a third of businesses who paid up recovered their data, down from around half in the prior year. The number of organisations who were able to recover their data without paying up in the same time period was just under a third. Ransomware accounts for 11% of cyber attacks reported to the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD). As of 30 May this year, Australian businesses with an annual turnover of more than $3M must report any ransomware or cyber extortion payments to the government within 72 hours of making the payment or becoming aware of it. At Generic Systems Australia we have decades of experience helping local businesses keep cyber thieves at bay through deployment of the world’s best MFT, GoAnywhere . If you’d like a no-cost, no-obligation discussion about how we could help you, please feel welcome to get in touch with me. Previous Next

< News Shadow IT Threatens Your Data 28 May 2026 Shadow IT is now one of the fastest‑growing threats inside enterprise environments, by creating unmonitored pathways for data to leave the organisation. Employees turn to unsanctioned tools - personal cloud drives, consumer messaging apps, ad‑hoc SFTP servers - because they’re convenient. However, these tools operate completely outside IT governance. Most of them employ no encryption standards, access controls, audit trails, or compliance oversight. That leaves blind spots for attackers can exploit. Managed File Transfer (MFT) solutions contain the risk of Shadow IT by replacing uncontrolled file‑sharing behaviour with a single, governed, auditable system. MFT enforces enterprise‑grade security - centralised authentication, encryption, policy‑driven access, and full transfer logging - so sensitive data never moves through unvetted channels. By consolidating all file movement into an approved platform, IT regains visibility, eliminates hidden third‑party exposure, and ensures every transfer complies with organisational and regulatory requirements. As Australia’s most experienced GoAnywhere provider, Generic Systems Australia is ready to help you take advantage of the capabilities of the world’s leading MFT solution, GoAnywhere MFT. In fact, we’re one of Fortra’s top ten MFT partners globally. Previous Next

< News "The Case of the Camouflaged CSV" 3 Sept 2025 It was a typical rainy Wednesday in the Cloud. I was nursing a lukewarm S3 bucket of coffee that was almost as bitter as my ex-wife. And that’s when she sauntered into my inbox—legs for days and resolution to match. Said she’d lost something precious: a young .CSV file named “Quarterly_P&L_FINAL_FINAL_v7.docx”. She’d been told I was the kind of dupe who could go find it. And I knew right then this case was going to be messier than an Agile Standup on a Friday afternoon. “Please,” she purred, her pixel-perfect lips trembling. “She vanished right after I hit ‘Send.’ Now she’s nowhere. Not in my Sent Mail. Not in OneDrive. Not in Dropbox. Not even in the Recycle Bin. Just… gone.” I leaned back in the battered Aeron I’d accepted from the last dame who hadn’t had the means to pay me, and reassured her I’d seen this kind of thing way too many times before. “Could be the work of Miss Configuration,” I mused. “Or worse… hackers.” “Please,” she begged, making like the waterworks were about to flow. “You’ve got to F1 me.” I sighed wearily… I’m always a sucker for a dame in distress. But she was right - I was her only chance of being reunited with her beloved .CSV. So I zipped up my trench coat, flipped my firewall to DND, and hit the dirty streets of cyberspace. First stop: the Dark Web. Sin City City plans don’t show where the Dark Web district begins. Nor is there any bullet-ridden road sign to let you know when you’ve crossed from the mean streets to the even meaner streets. But I knew I was there when I saw the familiar shady characters loitering — pop-up hustlers, cookie pushers, and a guy selling expired SSL certificates within the folds of a battered trench coat. I asked around for leads. “Try The Cache,” said a greasy bookmark with a twitchy scroll wheel. “Files go there to be forgotten.” Cold Cache I didn’t need directions. The Cache was a hidden side bar accessible only through a back door. I gave the bored muscle the password I’d bought from a PII broker and pushed into the shadowy crowd of malware and malcontents. The bartender—a grizzled old exe named Clippy—eyeballed me with suspicion before recognising me. “Well, well… if it ain’t GoAnywhere Gumshoe,” he said, polishing some code with a Dirty Markup tea towel. “Chasing another ghost in the machine?” “Not this time, Clippy,” I said. “This time she’s a file. A CSV. Corporate. Probably jacked full of lies and pivot tables.” Clippy winced. “You don’t want that kind of trouble. Last guy in here who asked about spreadsheets is still in a recursive loop.” I slipped Clippy a few kilobytes and he pointed me towards a shadowy booth. In it sat a rogue AI named DataDaemon, sniffing packets as he pored over a Docker container. “Yeah, she was here,” DataDaemon confirmed. “That file you’re looking for. But she wasn’t flying solo. She was hanging off the arm of… him.” “Who…?” “The PDF.” The Unusual Suspect I cursed under my bandwidth. The PDF—slick, immutable, and always up to something. But I had something up my sleeve that the PDF wouldn’t have counted on. It was for a case just like this one that I’d always maintained The Logs. And now The Logs were going to lead me through the brooding labyrinthine of the metadata metropolis, straight to The PDF and his hostage CSV. In no time, I tracked The PDF to a sleazy compression joint called The Zipper Club. He was lounging in a NAS, smug as a first gen backup, not suspecting a RAID. “Searching for your cute little CSV?” he sneered. “Well she ain’t going back. She craved permanence. And I gave her structure. Fonts that don’t shift. Headers that don’t cry.” I lunged at him, but he was fast—encrypted and password protected. I barely clocked his checksum before he was out the door and into the swirling Cloud again. A Ctrl-Breakthrough Back at my office, I stared at the blinking cursor. The trail seemed to have gone cold. It had been a busy day, and my RAM felt fried. But I had a reputation to maintain. I’d never failed a client before… and I sure as hell wasn’t going to fail this one, either. Running through The Logs one more time, I saw it… a timestamp: 3:14 a.m. That was bang in the middle of the witching hour for network traffic — prime time for somnambulant systems to engage in mundane crosstalk and perform glacial backups. I picked up the CSV’s trail again in a neglected SharePoint graveyard. And then there she was, buried six layers deep in folders labelled “Misc”, “Old Stuff” and “DO NOT DELETE”. I exhumed her gently. She was intact, but changed. Her margins were off. Her fonts had gone rogue. Someone had run a mail merge on her. I brought her back to Miss JPEG, and this time, there was no holding back the flood of pixelated tears. “You found her,” she said. “But she’s… different.” “Aren’t we all,” I said, pointing my chin in the direction of the window, where a new day was shooting the first golden rays of hope through the night’s dark Cloud. I gestured towards CSV’s Version History. “She’s still there,” I said. “Just sleeping. Until you restore her.” Epilogue I leaned back in my Aeron and tipped my fedora over my eyes. I knew today would bring another client, another case, another missing file. But for now, the system was stable. And I was still the best damn gumshoe on the cyberspace beat. Fade to black. Cue saxophone MIDI. If you’d like a GoAnywhere Gumshoe protecting your files, please don’t hesitate to contact me . At Generic Systems Australia , we’re your local experts in Managed File Transfer technology. Previous Next

< News 55 Trillion File & Object Transfers in 2025 13 Jan 2026 One of the things I mused over during the new year break was “How many files did Australians transfer during 2025?” I asked an AI to assist me in a sweep of available data sources and come up with a reasoned estimation. Humans + Hidden When most people think about digital activity, they picture emails, cloud uploads, or the occasional shared document. Yet when we model Australia’s full digital ecosystem across 2025, a very different picture emerges. Human‑initiated file sharing — email attachments, messaging app files, cloud uploads — accounts for only a tiny fraction of the nation’s digital movement. Analysis places that figure at around 82 billion files per year, a substantial number on its own. But layering in the automated and infrastructural systems that underpin modern digital life, the scale expands dramatically. To reach an estimate of the total, four additional categories need to be accounted for. Automated system backups are the first major contributor. By estimating the number of organisations using cloud‑based incremental backup and applying conservative daily change rates, we arrived at roughly 11 trillion backup‑related file movements annually. Next came cloud sync events , driven by photo libraries, document updates, and multi‑device workflows. With around 60% of Australians using at least one active sync service, this added another 115 billion events. The real explosion came from Content Delivery Networks (CDNs). Every webpage, app screen, and embedded image is delivered as a collection of discrete objects. By modelling daily request volumes and average objects per request, we estimated 34.4 trillion CDN object transfers in 2025. Finally, we incorporated machine‑to‑machine (M2M) activity—the internal chatter of microservices, logs, IoT payloads, and replication events—using a conservative multiplier. This added another 11.4 trillion movements. Together, these layers produced a staggering total: approximately 50–60 trillion digital file and object transfers across Australia in 2025. Humans are barely the spark; the infrastructure is the inferno. Implications for Organisations The scale of data movement across Australia has profound implications for organisations. When file movement becomes this vast, distributed, and automated, traditional ad‑hoc transfer methods simply can’t keep up. Security gaps widen, auditability collapses, and operational risk multiplies. That’s why Managed File Transfer (MFT) technology should no longer be considered “nice to have”. MFT provides a controlled, encrypted, policy‑driven framework for moving data across systems, partners, and cloud environments. It brings visibility to the invisible, governance to the chaotic, and reliability to the mission‑critical. In a world where trillions of transfers happen without a human ever touching a keyboard, MFT is the anchor that keeps organisations secure, compliant, and in control. Here to Help At Generic Systems Australia , we’re Australia’s and New Zealand’s experts in helping businesses implement and take leverage MFT solutions. 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 what MFT can do for 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 the world’s leading MFT solution, GoAnywhere . Previous Next