< News Secret Ransomware Payments Rife: Survey 19 Aug 2024 Pervasive cyberattacks are leading most companies to pay ransoms and break their “Do Not Pay” policies, according to recent research. A poll of IT and security decision-makers conducted by Cohesity found that that most companies have paid a ransom in the last two years. In fact, 79% of respondents said their company had been the victim of a ransomware attack during the second half of 2023. The breadth of an organisation’s “attack surfaces” depends on the size and scope of its data environments. However, 78% of respondents said their data security risk had increased faster than the growth in the data they manage. They also said their organisation’s cyber resilience and data security strategies had not kept pace with emerging threats – only 21% had full confidence in their company’s cyber resilience strategy. Slow Recovery, Lack of Testing Cyber resilience is a critical element of business continuity, and encompasses a company’s ability to recover their data and restore business processes when they suffer a cyberattack or IT outage. Key insights from the survey on this point included: All respondents said they need more than 24 hours to recover data and restore business processes. Only 7% said their company could recover data and restore business processes within 1-3 days. 35% said they could recover and restore in 4 to 6 days, while 34% need 1-2 weeks, and 23% need more than 3 weeks. Only 12% of those surveyed said their company had stress-tested their data security, data management, and data recovery processes or solutions in the six months prior to being surveyed. 46% hadn’t tested in more than 12 months. Secret Ransom Payments While 84% had a “do not pay” policy, Cohesity reported that 94% of respondents divulged that their company would pay a ransom to recover data and restore business processes. 5% said “maybe, depending on the ransom amount”. Two thirds said their company would be willing to pay over US$3M to recover data and restore business processes, and a third said their company would be willing to pay over $5M. Don’t Pay: Prevent! The volume, frequency, and sophistication of ransomware attacks will only increase. And paying ransoms only encourages cyberthieves to escalate their efforts. Worse, if ransoms are seen as “easy money”, new miscreants will be tempted to acquire ransomware tools from the dark web and join the cyber crimewave. Rather than investing in ransoms, organisations need to invest in their cyber resilience. That starts with keeping thieves at bay - protecting valuable data where it is stored, and when it is transferred – and building organisational capability in rapidly responding to and recovering from cyberattacks. Building cyber resilience need not be a drag on an organisation’s efficiency. Automation can ensure data is protected at rest and in motion, requiring little to no manual management. For example, Managed File Transfer (MFT) solutions such as the class-leading GoAnywhere MFT encrypt data at rest and in transit, complying with the highest data security standards (including the US’s and Europe’s HIPAA, HITECH, PCI DSS, SOX, and GDPR). MFT manages inbound and outbound file transfers across an organisation, using industry-standard file transfer protocols such as SFTP, FTPS, and AS2 to send files securely, and encryption standards such as Open PGP and AES 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 your organisation, and reducing opportunities for employees to lose or mishandle sensitive data. Local Expertise Ready to Help Generic Systems Australia are your local experts in Managed File Transfer and Advanced Threat Protection. We’ve assisted hundreds of organisations across the Asia-Pacific region to secure their data, keep cybercriminals at bay… and keep ransomware off the books. If you’d like to discuss improving your cybersecurity, 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. About the survey: Cohesity’s findings are based on a survey of 902 IT and Security decision-makers (split as close to 50:50 as possible) commissioned by Cohesity and conducted by Censuswide. Survey respondents were polled from businesses in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The top five industries selected by respondents as best representing the industry their company operates in were: IT & Telecommunications, Finance, Healthcare, Finance, HR, and Manufacturing & Utilities. Previous Next

< News GoAnywhere's Cloud Connectors 17 Mar 2024 Seamlessly integrate GoAnywhere with External Services via Cloud Connectors Cloud Connectors enable you to easily and securely transfer files between your organisation and external cloud services and applications. Also referred to as “cloud integrations”, Cloud Connectors offer out-of-the-box connectors for GoAnywhere to popular services including Salesforce, SharePoint Online, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Box, and Dropbox. For example: Let’s say one of your trading partners requests an important file and wants you to share it via a folder in Dropbox. Or perhaps you have contacts or billing information you want to update automatically in Salesforce. Cloud Connectors enable you to easily do so. Broad Range Cloud Connectors are easily downloaded from GoAnywhere MFT’s integrated Marketplace, which features Connectors for the most commonly used cloud services. These include: • Alibaba Object Storage Service • Amazon Cloud Trail, CloudWatch, EC2, Lambda, SNS, and SQS • Atlassian JIRA • Automate Plus • Azure Data Lake Storage Gen1 (superseded by Gen2) and Storage Queue • Box • Citrix ShareFile • Dropbox • Egnyte • GateScanner CDR • GoAnywhere Command • Google Cloud Storage, Drive, and Translate • JAMS • Jenkins • Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, 365 CRM, OneDrive, Sharepoint Online and Sharepoint On-Premise • OPSWAT MetaDefender • Salesforce • ServiceNow • SMA OpCon Scheduler • SOS Berlin JobScheduler (Online version not supported) • Trello • Veeva CRM • Votiro • Webdocs • Zendesk (Online version not supported) Cloud Connectors can integrate with available on-premise and online versions of third-party software unless otherwise noted. How to Configure Cloud Connectors Once a Cloud Connector is installed, you can configure the connection properties as a GoAnywhere Resource. With this resource, you only need to specify the connection once before being able to seamlessly reuse it in any of your workflows and cloud file transfers. A Cloud Connector definition contains the various actions required to communicate with cloud applications. For example: authentication logging file transfer file management and error handling. In GoAnywhere, these actions appear as elements located under the Cloud Connector in the GoAnywhere Project Designer. Elements can be incorporated into your workflows alongside other project tasks, and processes can even be automated between multiple web and cloud services at once. New GoAnywhere connectors can be downloaded without needing to update the software. No Connector? No problem! While GoAnywhere Marketplace contains a broad array of Cloud Connectors, you may also want to connect to a unique external service. Custom connectors are the answer! At Generic Systems Australia, we can design and develop Custom Connectors for you, using GoAnywhere’s Cloud Connector Designer. If you’d like to discuss how your organisation’s file transfers to external cloud providers can be made more efficient and secure, please feel to contact our Business Manager, Bradley Copson (mail to: bradley@gensys.com.au ). He’s 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. Generic Systems Australia Your Local Experts in Managed File Transfer #MFT #managedfiletransfer #securefiletransfer #sft #cybersecurity #datatransfer Previous Next

< News A Key Question Your Anxious Board SHOULD Be Asking About Cyber Security 4 Aug 2026 Another week, another loss of confidential data from a high-profile corporation. In Board Rooms across Australia, Board Members will be quizzing security team leaders, seeking reassurance that their organisation isn’t similarly exposed. But it’s unlikely they’re diving deep enough. One important question isn’t being asked - or answered. “If our file transfer platform were compromised tomorrow, how bad would it   be?” Securing Your MFT Most discussions around cyber security comprise a checklist of compliance requirements and a list of supported protocols. While these matter, they’re not what determines whether a vulnerability turns into an incident . The difference is whether your managed file transfer system has been properly secured and made resilient. Here’s what to look for. 1. Least Privilege Is Enforced, Not Assumed  In many environments, file transfer services run with more access than they need. Elevated OS permissions, shared service accounts, and broad directory access are common. While this reduces friction, this easy access also becomes permission for attackers.   Ironically, while IT teams are implementing Zero Trust for users, too many are still granting Complete Trust to the automated pipes moving their organisation’s most sensitive data. A breach doesn't need to break your encryption if it can simply hijack your delivery system. A modern MFT platform should be able to function without blanket system‑level access, with admin actions clearly separated from operational ones. Core services should run under non‑privileged service accounts, with only the minimum permissions required to complete transfers. When MFT services run as root, administrator, or highly privileged system users, any application‑level compromise can quickly become a lateral movement opportunity. Running services under constrained, non‑privileged accounts helps ensure that a single flaw doesn’t automatically grant access to adjacent systems or sensitive resources. GoAnywhere MFT - the world’s leading Managed File Transfer solution - is designed with this separation foremost in mind. Access is intentional , not inherited. 2. Isolation Limits Blast Radius One of the biggest differentiators between a security  event  and a security  incident  is isolation. When a file transfer application is tightly coupled to the underlying operating system, any application‑level weakness risks becoming a system‑level failure. That’s when a bug can become a breach. Stronger designs enforce clear boundaries between: Application and the OS Different environments What the service can see and what it can touch This is where architectural choices like containerisation and user‑space isolation matter. Running MFT services in user‑space - rather than granting direct kernel‑level access - helps prevent application flaws from escalating into full host compromise. Containerised or sandboxed deployments further reduce risk by isolating the MFT runtime from the host operating system and from other services. If a vulnerability is exploited inside the application, the attacker is confined to that limited execution context instead of gaining unrestricted access to the system. Isolation must also extend to how MFT platforms are exposed to the internet. In properly designed architectures, no data should ever reside in the DMZ. Instead, the MFT platform should securely proxy connections from the internal network through a hardened gateway, ensuring external access is terminated safely without opening inbound ports from the internet into the private network. When file transfer servers are placed directly in the DMZ or allowed to store data there, they introduce unnecessary persistence and expand the attack surface. A hardened gateway model, combined with user‑space execution and container isolation, limits what an attacker can reach even if the external‑facing component is compromised. Isolation doesn’t prevent vulnerabilities, but it can dramatically limit what happens after one is found. 3. Protect Trust with Key Management Encrypting data in transit is essential. The greater challenge is ensuring data remains protected once it reaches the file transfer platform. Strong MFT architectures encrypt stored files using modern standards such as AES‑256, ensuring that data remains protected even if storage or system access is compromised. Equally important is how encryption keys are managed. Keys should be stored encrypted and controlled outside of file transfer workflows, ideally through an enterprise key management system. Separating key storage from transfer operations ensures that access to data does not automatically imply access to the keys that protect it. 4. Visibility Beyond Logins Most security monitoring around file transfer stops at authentication. That’s no longer enough, because when attackers target file transfer platforms, it can often look like legitimate transfers - just at the wrong time, to the wrong place, or in the wrong volume. Security teams need visibility into what data moved, where it went, how it was initiated, and whether it matched expected behaviour. This is where detailed transfer-level audits play an important role. Logs must support investigations, not just troubleshooting. This level of visibility allows SOC security teams to quickly distinguish between normal automation and misuse even when activity originates from trusted service accounts or internal systems. 5. Automation Isn’t Just a Shortcut Automation is essential. It’s also one of the more common reasons for over‑privilege, with scripts and APIs often outliving their original purpose. Credentials can eventually get reused, expanding access over time. And when those vulnerabilities surface, automation paths are often the hardest to untangle. Secure MFT platforms apply the same controls to automation  that they do to users: scoped credentials, auditable actions, and clear ownership. Automation processes should run under the same non-privileged scoped service accounts as interactive services to ensure that if a single workflow is compromised it doesn’t enable broader system access. Turning Lessons into Better Decisions The organisations weathering the cyber security storm aren’t the ones with perfect patch timing. They’re the ones whose architecture assumes failure and limits consequences. Treating MFT as critical infrastructure, one designed around least privilege, user-space execution, non-privileged service accounts, isolation, secure DMZ handling, and visibility, doesn’t eliminate risk. But it does help prevent one flaw from becoming a systemic failure. Local Help on Hand At Generic Systems Australia , we’re Australia’s and New Zealand’s deep local experts in MFT. A top ten MFT partner for Fortra globally, we have many years of experience helping organisations from small to multinational install and leverage the world’s leading MFT. Let us know if you’d like to learn more about how GoAnywhere MFT can help you. Attribution: This blog leverages excellent technical advice originally published by Jeff Burkett, Senior Solutions Engineer at Fortra. Previous Next

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

< News What Boards Need to KNOW and DO About the Latest AI Threats 11 Aug 2026 Advances in AI are making cyber attacks faster, more effective, and easier to execute. In partnership with the Australian Institute of Company Directors, the Australian Signals Directorate recommends the following key actions: Review how advances in frontier AI models could affect your organisation’s cyber security posture, including new AI-enabled cyber threats. Assess the risk of relying on AI providers, including cyber supply chain risks and concerns about foreign ownership, control and influence. Make sure your organisation is prepared to prevent, detect, respond to and recover from cyber security incidents in an agentic AI-driven threat environment. Strengthen cyber security by improving governance, processes, and capabilities to manage AI use within your organisation. What do boards need to know? Cyber threats are rapidly evolving due to the constant advances of “frontier” AI models. Frontier AI models are typically characterised by advanced reasoning, software development capabilities, natural language processing or multimodal capabilities, and are trained at scale using state-of-the-art techniques. Such AI models can perform complex tasks that exceed the capabilities of conventional automated tools. Frontier AI models have been widely available since early 2023 and continue to rapidly evolve. These AI models can: identify vulnerabilities and rapidly weaponise them; chain together multiple low severity vulnerabilities into high-impact compromises; and perform malicious cyber activities with little to no human oversight. Newer AI models are also dramatically increasing the speed, scale and ease at which vulnerabilities and weaknesses in systems and cyber supply chains can be identified and exploited, including by malicious actors that previously lacked the knowledge or skills to perform such activities. Combined with malicious actors exploiting weaknesses in proprietary AI model guardrails and illegally distilling such AI models, these developments enable broader access to advanced capabilities and amplify traditional attacker-defender asymmetries. This may rapidly invalidate organisations’ current risk tolerance. Overall, AI models are currently, and will continue to, fundamentally transform both offensive and defensive cyber capabilities. Boards should also be conscious that the implications of AI models extend beyond their effect on cyber security operations. For example, boards should consider cyber supply chain risks associated with their reliance on particular AI vendors and the foreign ownership, control or influence risks this may pose. These dynamics have clear implications for how boards should oversee proactive steps to enhance cyber security and resilience within their organisations. Organisations that fail to act now are exposing their organisations to greater business risk and losses. What threshold questions should boards ask? Boards should quiz management on the following: How vulnerable is our organisation to AI-enabled attacks? What assumptions underpin our current risk assessments, and how might AI threats invalidate those assumptions? Have we reviewed our risk tolerance in light of AI threats and is that risk tolerance still appropriate? If AI models were used to identify and exploit weaknesses across our organisation, what areas of our business would be most exposed? Where could minor weaknesses in our systems and cyber supply chain be combined into a major cyber security incident? Are there known weaknesses in our systems that could become materially more dangerous if identified and exploited at machine speed? Are we relying on vendors and service providers without sufficient governance and oversight, including an understanding of their foreign ownership, control or influence? Do we have visibility of the security and resilience posture of third and fourth-party suppliers within our cyber supply chain? Do we have control over our cyber security fundamentals, such as adherence with a recognised cyber security framework? What legacy technology risks are we carrying and do we have a plan to remediate these risks? Are we delaying addressing any weaknesses due to a perceived low exposure or severity? Would our cyber security operations remain effective if cyber attacks became more frequent, more targeted and more automated? Can we keep the business operational during a serious cyber security incident? If one of our critical systems was compromised, could we continue operating our most important services? If attacks moved from taking days to hours, could we still detect and respond to them effectively? Have our incident response and business continuity plans been updated and tested to capture AI threats? What should boards focus on? AI has the potential to significantly reduce vulnerability discovery and exploitation timelines from days to hours while significantly lowering the skill and knowledge barrier for malicious actors. Organisations should enhance their cyber security fundamentals now and boards should oversee and challenge management on how their organisations are implementing the following strategies. Immediate priorities Secure attack surfaces:  Systems are securely configured to approved and maintained baselines to reduce system exposure, including by reducing attack surfaces and attack paths, with configurations continually monitored and consistently enforced. Reduce software vulnerabilities:  Vulnerabilities in systems are identified, documented, validated and prioritised for remediation or mitigation in a timely manner, with all remediation and mitigation actions verified for effectiveness. Short-term priorities Replace legacy systems:  Systems that aren’t capable of meeting cyber security requirements are managed using compensating controls, along with enhanced monitoring and assurance activities, to maintain an acceptable level of residual risk until they can be decommissioned or replaced. Reinforce identity, credential and access management:  Robust and secure identity, credential and access management is used to establish, maintain and control access to systems and to support effective detection of identity and credential misuse. Restrict unnecessary privileges:  Personnel and services, including AI agents, are granted the minimum access to systems required to undertake their duties. Prepare for cyber security incidents:  Cyber security incident response, business continuity and disaster recovery plans for systems support continued business operations during cyber security incidents, and the resumption of normal business operations following cyber security incidents. Medium-term priorities Adopt AI for cyber defence purposes:  Artificial intelligence is used for cyber defence and is secure, controllable, human-supervised and used in an ethical and accountable manner. Longer-term priorities Modernise for the future:  Systems are planned, designed, developed, tested, deployed, maintained and decommissioned according to business criticality ratings and security and resilience requirements using Secure by Design and Secure by Default principles and practices. What practical actions can boards oversee? Boards are encouraged to engage with, and where appropriate challenge, management on their implementation as their organisation develops its response to AI threats. This should include regular reporting and assurance. Secure attack surfaces Define approved configuration baselines that disable or remove unnecessary services, insecure settings, and unsupported or weak communication protocols. Deploy approved configuration baselines on systems, including infrastructure, operating systems and applications. Detect and respond to configuration drift from approved configuration baselines through automation or continuous technical assessments. Reduce software vulnerabilities Identify known software and configuration weaknesses of assets through continuous and repeatable assessment activities, including vulnerability scanning activities. Apply security patches or updates within defined risk-based timeframes or, where operational impact is low, automatically. Remediate or mitigate vulnerabilities exceeding defined risk thresholds within defined risk-based timeframes based on their severity and exposure. Replace legacy systems Establish and maintain a process for identifying, assessing and managing the cyber security risk associated with legacy systems until they can be removed or replaced. Reinforce identity, credential and access management Identify and disable or remove default and unused accounts on a regular basis. Store authentication keys, secrets and tokens in approved secure repositories with access controls, including multi-factor authentication. Regularly scan codebases, configuration files, file shares and user collaboration platforms to identify unsecured keys, secrets and credentials. Use phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication for users authenticating to systems, including from untrusted, external or high-risk locations. Disable legacy authentication protocols that bypass or weaken modern authentication controls. Ensure that user, machine, system and service credentials are unique per system or account, particularly in high-privilege contexts. Restrict unnecessary privileges Periodically review and update access privileges in alignment with current roles, duties and business requirements. Restrict permissions to create, modify or delete accounts, roles or access to privileged functions or applications to authorised administrative roles. Provision user, administrative and non-person accounts with only the minimum access and privileges required to perform defined operational functions. Prepare for cyber security incidents Review cyber security incident response, business continuity and disaster recovery plans to ensure they remain fit for purpose. Regularly exercise cyber security incident response, business continuity and disaster recovery plans. Adopt AI for cyber defence purposes Deploy suitable AI models for augmenting software development activities, such as identifying and remediating vulnerabilities and weaknesses for software before its release and periodically throughout its life. Deploy suitable AI models for augmenting security assessment activities, such as performing vulnerability scanning and vulnerability assessments. Deploy suitable AI models for augmenting security monitoring activities, such as identifying and triaging cyber security events. Modernise for the future Design systems to provide visibility, enforce authorised access, protect data, minimise required and default privileges, limit exposed services, and remove unnecessary functionality. Secure build and deployment processes to enforce controls consistently across systems. How can MFT help mitigate the AI threat? Managed File Transfer (MFT) mitigates AI cyber risks by imposing strict governance over how sensitive data moves, shutting down the very leakage paths that AI‑enhanced attackers exploit. By centralising all file flows, MFT prevents shadow‑AI behaviours - such as staff feeding regulated data into external LLMs - through granular access controls, encryption, and content inspection that blocks sensitive prompts before they reach uncontrolled endpoints. While AI adversaries can discover vulnerabilities and weaponise exploits at machine speed, MFT counters this by enforcing hardened, vendor‑supported transfer channels, rapid patching, and continuous anomaly detection that flags abnormal transfer patterns and stops malicious exfiltration in real time. Critically, MFT maintains immutable audit trails for all AI‑related data flows, giving organisations forensic visibility and compliance evidence as AI models become autonomous actors in enterprise systems Here to Help At Generic Systems Australia , we are the nation’s most experienced and dedicated provider of the industry’s leading MFT solution, GoAnywhere . We’re right here and on hand locally to help your organisation protect itself against malicious AI incursions. As the ASD recommends: don’t leave yourself exposed to the risk from AI. Boards should press management to act now to ensure their organisation does not fall victim to current and emerging AI threats, including by supporting targeted investments to enhance cyber security and resilience. Acknowledgement: this article substantially reproduces (and expands upon) excellent advice provided by the ASD in partnership with the AICD. Previous Next

< News Three Enterprise Data Exchange Traps 26 May 2026 Many organisations are re-evaluating their data exchange strategies and exploring modern MFT platforms such as GoAnywhere MFT . Data exchange has quietly become one of the most critical layers of modern IT infrastructure. Modern organisations move increasingly large volumes of sensitive information between partners, cloud platforms, internal systems, and external services. Everything - from revenue creation to regulatory reporting – relies on those exchanges being secure, reliable and auditable. Older data exchange approaches increasingly suffer from inherent problems. Frequent Patching Patching usually happens after a security issue has occurred. That’s not good enough in an era when hackers move so quickly to exploit vulnerabilities. Embedding proactive threat intelligence within the transfer platform itself is now the way. Automation Relies on Scripting Workflows built around years of accumulated scripts are brittle. That is, small changes somewhere in your IT environment can break them. And when they do fail, it usually does unnoticed. GoAnywhere features built-in automation - and has done so for 18 years. Doesn’t Scale with Your IT Expansion When performance or availability challenges arise, some architectures require additional servers or external components. GoAnywhere is architected so that adding capacity, throughput, or new workloads happens automatically through built‑in clustering, load balancing, and distributed components. No redesign, manual scripting, or forklift upgrades necessary. At Generic Systems Australia, we’re Oceania’s deep local experts in MFT, and one of Fortra’s top ten MFT partners globally. We’re right here, ready to help you modernise your MFT. Previous Next

< News How Does Bulk Data Leave Your Network - and Would You See It? 24 Aug 2026 Here's a question I suggest IT and security leaders ask… because it's clarifying in a way that most audit checklists aren't: “If 200 gigabytes of your most sensitive data left your network tonight, how would it get out - and who, if anyone, would notice before Monday?” Most organisations have a confident answer for the front door. Firewalls, email filtering, endpoint protection, maybe a DLP tool with a dashboard someone checks occasionally. But bulk data almost never leaves through the front door. It leaves through channels the business built itself, uses every day, and has largely stopped looking at. The channels nobody owns Walk through any mid-sized or large organisation and you'll find the same picture. The scheduled transfers nobody remembers. Somewhere on a server is a script written years ago by someone who has since left that pushes files to a partner, a bureau, a payroll provider, an offshore processor. It runs at 2am. It works, so nobody touches it. Nobody reviews what it sends, whether the credentials have ever been rotated, or whether the counterparty at the other end is still who you think it is. Multiply that by every integration the business has ever built, and you have dozens or hundreds of standing pipes out of your network with no single owner and no consolidated record. Email and its attachments. Email is the default bulk transfer tool of every organisation on earth. Spreadsheets full of customer records go out one attachment at a time, and because each individual send looks routine, the aggregate is invisible. Ask yourself: could anyone in your organisation tell you how much structured customer data left via email last quarter? In most places the honest answer is that no one even knows to ask that question. Cloud sync and personal accounts. A well-meaning employee under deadline pressure shares a folder from a personal file-sharing account because the corporate way was too slow. Shadow IT isn't malicious - it's a service gap. Every gap your sanctioned tools leave, your people will fill with something you can't see, and the data that flows through it never appears in any log you control. The legacy FTP server. Many organisations still run one - often internet-facing, often on default configurations, often "temporarily" kept alive for one partner who never migrated. It has no meaningful audit trail, and in the industry's recent breach history, unmanaged transfer endpoints have been among the most reliably exploited assets on the perimeter. Legitimate credentials, illegitimate use. This is one that should genuinely worry you. Modern data theft rarely looks like an exotic hack. Attackers – and occasionally, insiders - use valid accounts and ordinary tools to move data out through the same channels the business uses, precisely because that traffic blends in. The overwhelming majority of ransomware incidents now involve data being stolen before anything is encrypted, because stolen data is the real leverage. The exfiltration phase often runs for days. In network terms, it frequently looks like just another big transfer – because, mechanically, that's exactly what it is. The visibility test So: would you see it? Here's a practical test. For your organisation, right now, try to answer four questions. One : how many distinct channels exist by which a file larger than 1GB can leave your network? Two : for what percentage of them is there a complete, centralised record of what was sent, by whom, to where? Three : if a service account that normally transfers 50MB a night suddenly transferred 500GB, would anything alert? Four : after an incident, could you reconstruct - with evidence, not inference - exactly which records left? Most organisations can't answer the first question, which makes the other three academic. And that's an architecture failure. Data leaves through many doors, and no one is responsible for all of them. And under Australia's current regulatory settings - APRA's CPS 234 and CPS 230, the SOCI Act's risk management obligations, a Privacy Act with real teeth - "we couldn't see it" has stopped being an explanation and started being the finding. Managed File Transfer (MFT) locks down the exits Invisible data exfiltration is the problem MFT exists to solve. It collapses the many unmanaged doors into one governed one. A properly deployed MFT platform gives you a single controlled channel for bulk data movement: the 2am scripts become defined, documented workflows; the partner connections run through one gateway instead of a dozen forgotten endpoints; the ad hoc human sends get a sanctioned secure option easy enough that people stop reaching for personal tools. It gives you identity and policy at the point of movement - every transfer tied to an authenticated user or service, governed by role-based permissions, encrypted in transit and at rest. It gives you a complete audit trail : one record of what moved, who moved it, where it went, feeding your SIEM so the 500GB anomaly is a same-day alert rather than a discovery made weeks later from someone else's breach notification. And it lets you decommission the legacy attack surface - the old FTP server, the scattered scripts, the standing exceptions in the firewall - which is often the single biggest risk reduction in the whole exercise. MFT doesn't make exfiltration impossible. But what it does is change the answer to the opening question. Bulk data can still leave your network - but through a channel you own, under policies you set, leaving evidence you hold. The difference between "would you see it?" being a nervous silence and being a confident yes is, in most organisations, less about buying more detection and more about finally governing the doors. If you're not sure how many doors your own network has, that's a conversation worth having before someone else finds them for you. On Hand in Your Time Zone At Generic Systems Australia, we’re Australia’s and New Zealand’s deep local experts in MFT. One of Fortra’s top ten MFT partners globally, we have decades of experience helping businesses just like yours implement MFT solutions that close the door on invisible data exfiltration. Get in touch if you’d like to discuss MFT further. No obligation, just an introductory sharing of information and perspectives. 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< News Aussie cyber staff “world’s most stressed”: survey 9 Oct 2024 Aussie cyber security workers are the world’s most stressed, according to a survey by international tech professional association ISACA. For its State of Cybersecurity 2024 report, ISACA surveyed 1,868 cyber security professionals from 102 countries, including Australia. They found that Australian cyber security workers are feeling more stressed in their jobs than their counterparts in any other country. Overly Complex, Under Resourced Respondents attributed the rising stress to Australia’s “increasingly complex threat landscape” and “continual under-resourcing” of their cyber security departments and roles. They reported lower budgets, higher hiring and retention challenges, and a more significant lack of prioritisation of cyber security risks than their global peers. Nearly half of all respondents believed their company’s cyber security budget was inadequate, and only a third expected it to be increased in the year ahead. As a result, most said they didn’t feel ready to combat the growing risk of a cyber-attack on their organisation. Burnout In a further worrying sign for Australian businesses, many cyber security professionals said the stress of their role had become so significant that they were considering moving on from their current organisation. Of those who had already left, 60% cited “stress” as the primary reason. ISACA’s Director of Professional Practices and Innovation, Jon Brandt, urged Australian employers to better mitigate the stress of their cyber defenders. “Employers (should) explore ways to support staff before burnout and attrition occur,” he said. ISACA said the increasing complexity of cyber attacks required additional effort, energy and intelligence from cyber professionals. It characterised the need to stay ahead of new technologies and digital weapons as “all-consuming”, and this explained why cyber pros in Australia were feeling the effects of increased stress in their roles. Most Australian respondents said they expected a cyber attack on their organisation during the next year. However, only 32% had a high degree of confidence in their team’s ability to detect and respond to the attack. Cyber Stress Relief Companies can take some of the load off their beleaguered cyber security staff by adopting automated, proactive and layered cyber defences. The goal is an always-on system which automatically secures, stores and transfers data, repelling cyberthieves before they gain access to company systems. The foundation of such an approach is a technology called “Managed File Transfer” (MFT). Paired with secure content engines and secure digital rights management, MFT is an optimal way to prevent data theft and cyber breaches. An MFT solution such as the class-leading GoAnywhere MFT keeps your organisation’s valuable data safe - at rest, and in transit. Coupled with an Advanced Threat Protection Bundle, it enables organisations to safely collaborate without exposing their systems or team to the risks of malware. This automated defence system protects your organisation’s data in three key ways: 1. It prevents files containing malware from being received, by scanning all inbound files and automatically stripping out embedded malware, triggered executables, scripts, or macros. 2. It blocks sensitive data from being shared, by inspecting file contents and stopping protected data from being shared, based on policies you define. 3. It redacts sensitive information from files before they are transferred, detecting and/or removing geotags, document properties, email addresses, and other metadata from documents. Local Help Available As your company’s stressed cyber professionals are signalling, today’s interconnected business environment makes cyber attacks inevitable. However, foiling these attacks no longer requires draining manual cyber surveillance. At Generic Systems Australia , we’ve helped hundreds of business leaders and IT teams across the Asia-Pacific region rest easier, knowing that their valuable data is protected by the automated sentries of GoAnywhere with Advanced Threat Protection. We can do the same for you. It’s surprisingly affordable, and our Migration Services mean you can keep running your business without disruption as we you transition to a more secure approach. In fact, we’re so confident that the capabilities and business case for installing an MFT solution stack up that we’ll even offer you a zero-cost Proof of Concept. If you’d like to help take the load off your cyber security team, and explore how your organisation can automate its data transfer security, please feel welcome to contact me . I’m always happy to have an obligation-free discussion. 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

GoAnywhere MFT GoAnywhere MFT is the award-winning cybersecurity solution which helps more than 3,000 organisations safely connect to their trading partners, automate their IT processes, and protect their data. This brief video overviews its key features and benefits. RESOURCES HOME