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2024 Cyber Insiders Survey Fortra's "2024 State of Cybersecurity Survey" shares the invaluable insights of more than 400 cybersecurity professionals from across the globe, including many in Australia, New Zealand and the Asia-Pacific region. Here’s their 2024 report. To receive a Complimentary Copy of the Report, simply submit your email address below: First name Last name Enter your email address Phone You'll receive the '2024 Cyber Insiders Survey Report' shortly! RESOURCES Receive Report HOME

< News “Scripting SNAFU” – A True Cautionary Tale 25 Feb 2025 A n anecdote shared by a local business dramatically demonstrates the danger of relying on old-fashioned file transfer scripts within your organisation. Million Dollar Mishap An Australian business was using legacy scripts to copy their customers’ Personally Identifiable Information (PII) between systems within their business. Now, PII – personal details such as name, address, phone number, date of birth, bank details etc – is the most protected kind of consumer information under Australian law. Businesses which mishandle it expose themselves to penalties potentially as high as $50M. One day, a staff member in this business accidentally deleted a customer’s data directory – an error that went unnoticed. When the legacy file transfer script ran as per its usual schedule, attempting to copy the customer’s updated PII to their customer directory, it couldn’t. The destination directory was missing. So the script copied the customer’s PII to a different customer’s directory! This meant the original customer’s PII was now visible to and accessible by the wrong customer – in breach of Australia’s Privacy Act. Better Managed File Transfers GoAnywhere MFT – the world’s leading Managed File Transfer (MFT) solution – would have prevented this error from occurring. It tightly controls where files are transferred from and to, with high levels of authentication and encryption. GoAnywhere remains vigilant. If it detects anomalies in its authorised file transfers, it doesn’t proceed. Instead, it sends an immediate alert to an authorised employee so that the issue can be addressed – before any data is lost or privacy laws broken. However, there are many more reasons why you should replace file transfer scripts with the world’s leading MFT… No Safe Scripts Scripts aren’t secure. For example, data sent via FTP is transferred “in the clear” – an easy target for external hackers, or curious employees and vendors. Worse, user credentials aren’t encrypted, putting your entire system at risk. Scripts lack advanced features. For example, automating file transfers with FTP requires adding a second solution, a time-consuming and complex prospect. It’s also difficult to build in re-try features, and lock down how users interact with sensitive data. Scripts don’t play well with new systems. For example, cloud-based computing environments require file transfers to be integrated with cloud-based solutions, and platforms such as Azure and AWS. Scripts are time consuming. Developing, maintaining, and troubleshooting scripts takes time, distracting valuable support staff from more important things. And if your support staff aren’t available when a script fails, it can bottleneck your organisation’s entire workflow. A Happy Ending So, what happened to the business whose missing directory accidentally exposed their customer’s PII…? After one of their customers reported that they were seeing a different customer’s PII, the business scrambled to quickly address the problem. They re-created the necessary customer directories and manually moved their customer’s data to where it belonged. Whew! But it’s what they did next that made the biggest difference… Determined to prevent the possibility of any such error ever recurring, the business immediately conducted a comparison of Managed File Transfer solutions. They selected GoAnywhere, the industry’s leading Managed File Transfer – and became a Generic Systems Australia customer! Leveraging The Experience If you’d like to learn more about how GoAnywhere MFT could put guardrails around your business’s handling of PII, please feel welcome to get in touch with me . I’m always happy to have an obligation-free discussion, or provide a quick and easy proof of concept. At Generic Systems Australia we’re your local experts in MFT solutions. Previous Next

< News How to Evaluate MFT Pricing 26 Feb 2026 With several Managed File Transfer vendors trying to gain a foothold in your enterprise software stack, here’s some advice on how to evaluate the different MFT pricing models on offer. Some Deals are Better than Others MFT generally makes for a very strong investment case. In my experience, it usually pays for itself in less than year, considering the employee hours previously wasted on manual file transfers, script maintenance, troubleshooting etc. However, despite MFTs compelling value proposition, some introductory deals being offered by some vendors include "hidden handcuffs” you may come to rue later on. So I recommend prospective new buyers first invest some time considering how the different pricing models might deliver value for their organisation in both the short and long term. More than Volume Your MFT needs to suit your organisation’s unique requirements. And those include a lot more than just your current file transfer volume. The complexity, degree of industry regulation, and how distributed your file exchange environment is, should all factor into your considerations. Operational, security, and scalability requirements should significantly influence your investment. Key Considerations Deployment Scope & Scale : The size of your organisation directly shapes the infrastructure, level of governance, and amount of automation needed to ensure file exchanges are secured. In particular, enterprise-scale environments need to consider how many endpoints, external partners, internal users, and integrated systems are involved. Transfer Volume & Speed: Yes, the number of files and gigabytes you need to transfer is important. But so too are the required timing and speed of those transfers. High-volume operations, near real time exchanges, or mission-critical workloads often demand greater capacity, more robust architecture, and advanced configuration. And, as the scope of deployment grows, so do the requirements for reliability, scalability, and operational resilience. Security & Compliance: The more sensitive the data being exchanged, the more controls an organisation must put in place to protect it. Industries with strict regulatory frameworks often require advanced safeguards like encryption at rest and in transit, granular access controls, tamper-evident audit logs, and policy-driven governance. Some organisations may require additional, layered protections such as IP screening, multifactor authentication, certificate-based trust, and DMX isolation. Strengthening beyond bare minimums is increasingly necessary as the threat landscape evolves and cyber incidents grow more costly. Automation: File transfers are rarely conducted in isolation. Orchestrating data movement between core business systems - ERP, CRM, financial platforms, HR and cloud applications – is a core benefit of MFT. Of course, the more systems an MFT solution needs to connect with, the more configuration, testing, and governance are required. Organisations operating in multi-cloud or multi‑vendor ecosystems may require more robust connectors, additional security controls, and specialised protocol support to ensure file transfers are reliable and compliant. This makes integration one of the most important pricing considerations to evaluate upfront. Local Support & Expertise: The availability of ongoing assistance - in your country, in your time zone – is key to maintaining reliability and troubleshooting any issues that can arise across your interconnected enterprise systems. That’s particularly true at the time you’re deploying and testing your newly automated file transfer system. Transitioning from manual scripting or fragmented tools may need additional resources at the outset to streamline processes, onboard users and partners, or build governance around new workflows. Later, as your IT environment scales, you may require enhanced monitoring, reporting, and administrative tools to maintain visibility and control. That’s why local support and maintenance are an essential consideration in a pricing discussion. The Usage Pricing Trap I urge caution when it comes to the usage-based pricing offered by some vendors. While the initial sticker price may seem appealing, costs can escalate quickly as your usage increases and your MFT footprint grows. An alternative - Server/Node pricing - doesn't punish you add more workload and users over time. How Modular Pricing Helps So: many variables can and should influence your MFT investment. You don’t want to pay for capabilities you need yet, but nor do you want to realise too late that you’re boxed in when your requirements grow. This is where GoAnywhere MFT 's modular approach to pricing really pays dividends for customers: Flexibility: Add licensed modules for a customized solution. Scalability: Scale up or down as your needs change. Singular product ease: Move data across all environments and applications with one, feature-rich solution. Integration: Complementary solutions like Advanced Threat Protection enable you to collaborate safely without malware entering your organisation, and without your employees losing or mishandling data. Server/Node Based: Avoid the usage pricing trap I cautioned against earlier. GoAnywhere is designed with flexibility in mind. Organisations can start with the core capabilities they need today and add additional modules over time for areas like high availability, advanced automation, auditing and reporting, and extended security controls. Bundles with popular combinations also add pricing value and flexibility. Licensable modules expand GoAnywhere’s functionality, Secure File Servers, Secure Folders, Secure Forms, as well as accelerated file transfer, Advanced Reporting, Content Inspection and more. Large enterprises which require high-availability and clustering, extensive auditing, or multi-cloud transfers can also design an architecture that matches their requirements without forcing every deployment into a one-size-fits-all bundle. Avoid Pricing Traps There’s no universal “sticker price” for comprehensive managed file transfer, because a secure, reliable, and compliant file transfer environment is shaped by more than just the number of servers or users. Deployment scale, security expectations, uptime requirements, automation ambitions, integration complexity, and local support needs should all contribute to your consideration of how to achieve the best value from your investment. Understanding the drivers up front can help you quiz potential providers and fairly compare your options. It will also help your eventual provider plan an efficient migration strategy, and a secure file transfer strategy that will serve your organisation well into the future. Local Advice, Expertise & Support At Generic Systems Australia , we have decades of experience helping Australian and New Zealand organisations take advantage of MFT technology. Our locally applied expertise has made us Fortra’s top MFT provider in Australia and New Zealand, and a Top 10 MFT partner globally. If you’d like a no-cost, no-obligation discussion about how we could help you simply and affordably adopt an advanced MFT solution, please feel welcome to get in touch with me . 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< News Data Breach Costs Escalate in 2024 14 Aug 2024 $4.26M! That’s the average cost of a data breach in Australia in 2024, according to new research released by IBM. The figure – a record high – represents a whopping 27% increase since 2020. However, while the average cost of a data breach continues to escalate, the types of cyber breaches experienced by Australian organisations continue to be the usual suspects. Under Attack IBM’s research found that Phishing continues to be the most common type of attack vector , with 22% of breaches starting this way. Stolen or compromised credentials were the second most common, accounting for 17% of breaches. Malicious insiders were responsible for the most costly attacks, at 8% of incidents. It took Australian companies on average 266 days to identify/contain cyber incidents. This lengthy period contributed to high detection and escalation costs , which remain the most expensive aspect of a breach, with post-breach response and lost business the second most costly. Almost a third of data breaches involved data stored across multiple environments : public cloud, private cloud, and on-premises systems. Breaches across multiple environments took 13% longer to identify and contain. Organisations with too few cybersecurity staff paid the heaviest price, with an average cost per breach $2.7M higher than organisations with less exposure. However, involving law enforcement saved some ransomware victims as much as $1.5M in costs. Automated Defences Help Companies which didn’t use security AI and automation experienced significantly higher breach costs ($5.21M) than those which did, and it also took them an additional 99 days to identify and contain breaches. The research found that 65% of surveyed Australian organisations leveraged these technologies. However, attackers too are exploiting new opportunities presented by AI. For example, increasingly convincing deepfakes are enabling ever more effective social engineering attacks. Avoiding Costly Cyber Breaches To protect an organisation’s valuable data, it must be protected when it’s stored and while it’s “in motion”. As the research found, automation can ensure this takes place with the entirety of an organisation’s data transfers. 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 and keep cybercriminals at bay. 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. Previous Next

< News Battle “Breach Fatigue” with Managed File Transfer 16 Dec 2025 With the festive season fast approaching, many in business may be left feeling a little fatigued by what has been a hectic business year. But none more so than your beleaguered IT team. In 2025 they’ve been facing relentless waves of cyber-attack. From phishing campaigns to ransomware threats, they’ve needed to maintain constant vigilance to defend against the hordes of cyber criminals eager to steal your organisational data. In a phenomenon known as “Breach Fatigue”, a state of near exhaustion occurs when IT teams become desensitised to the sheer volume of alerts, warnings, and incidents they must manage daily. The consequences are serious: slower response times, overlooked vulnerabilities, and a creeping sense of burnout. Human Toll IT departments are inundated with hundreds of alerts each day, ranging from minor anomalies to potentially serious threats. Over time, the sheer volume of these notifications becomes mentally exhausting, making it increasingly difficult for teams to distinguish genuine risks from false positives. This operational overload not only slows response times but also raises the likelihood of critical signals being overlooked. As fatigue sets in, vigilance naturally declines. Teams may unconsciously lower their guard, treating new alerts as routine rather than recognising the urgency each one demands. This reduced attentiveness can allow real threats to slip through undetected, leaving systems exposed to breaches that could otherwise have been prevented with sharper focus. The constant exposure to high-stakes scenarios also takes a toll on morale. IT professionals working under relentless pressure often experience burnout, which can lead to disengagement or even resignation. When skilled staff leave, organisations face knowledge gaps and weakened defences, compounding the vulnerability created by Breach Fatigue. Financial Toll The financial consequences of this cycle are significant. A single overlooked breach can trigger costly downtime, regulatory fines, and lasting reputational damage. Breach Fatigue magnifies these risks by eroding the organisation’s defensive posture, turning what might have been a manageable incident into a major financial and operational setback. MFT Lightens the Load One way to alleviate Breach Fatigue is by reducing the number of potential breach vectors. Managed File Transfer (MFT) technology provides a secure, automated framework for moving sensitive data across systems, partners, and users. Unlike ad hoc file sharing methods — such as email attachments or unsecured FTP — MFT is designed with security and compliance at its core. MFT solutions encrypt files both in transit and at rest, ensuring that sensitive data cannot be intercepted or tampered with. This reduces the number of alerts IT teams must chase down related to insecure transfers. Instead of tracking multiple file-sharing platforms, IT staff gain a single dashboard to monitor transfers. This consolidation cuts down on noise and helps teams focus on genuine anomalies. By automating repetitive file transfer processes, MFT reduces human error — a common cause of breaches — and frees IT staff to focus on higher-value security work. MFT platforms often include built-in compliance features, such as audit trails and role-based access controls. This not only strengthens security but also reduces the stress of preparing for regulatory audits. Here to Help If you’re considering supporting your hard-working IT team with a Managed File Transfer solution, please feel welcome to get in touch . I’m always available for an obligation-free exploration of how MFT can help your business. I and my team have many years of experience helping companies big and small painlessly and affordably implement MFT solutions. At Generic Systems Australia , we’re your local experts in Managed File Transfer. Previous Next

GoAnywhere Gateway provides an additional layer of security when exchanging data with your trading partners, enabling you to keep file sharing services and documents safely in your private/internal network. This datasheet summarises its key technical features. View Report RESOURCES HOME

< News Local Businesses most at risk of Phishing Attacks: study 9 Apr 2024 A new study has found that employees in the Asia-Pacific region are more likely than any others worldwide to unwittingly expose their organisation to cybercrime. Fortra's newly-released study found 10% of employees worldwide will open a ‘phishing’ email sent to them. In Asia-Pacific, that number climbs to 14.9% – worse than any other region. Even more concerningly, 61% of those who fall for a bogus email will go on to disclose their password. The results of the experiment demonstrate the serious ongoing threat to local organisations posed by employees who are either uneducated on cybersecurity threats, or unmotivated to mitigate those risks. If you would like a copy of Fortra's report on the study, including helpful advice on how to address your cybersecurity challenges, please let me know – I’ll be happy to send you a copy. #mft #managedfiletransfer #sft #securefiletransfer #cybersecurity Previous Next

Our SFT Threat Protection Bundle can automatically catch and kill email threats before they enter or leave your organisation. This brief video shows how. Review the video below: RESOURCES HOME

< News Mid-Q3 Already...?! How’s That IT Roadmap Faring 11 Aug 2025 With 2025 already more than halfway done, how well are your IT deployments shaping up against your start-of-year roadmap? A Gartner survey at the end of last year found that most A/NZ CIOs were planning to invest significantly in improved cyber security in 2025. In fact, 88% of our region’s CIOs and technology executives said they’d invest in heightened cyber security measures, with 82% nominating it as their top investment priority. More Attacks, More Regulation The factors driving that focus certainly haven’t let up in the year to date. That is to say: the government’s push for greater regulation and transparency and the volume and sophistication of cyber attacks haven’t abated. As Gartner VP Brian Ferreira told the 2025 Gartner IT Symposium/Xpo on the Gold Coast: “Organisations face greater scrutiny as they batten down the hatches to avoid becoming the next target or breaching stewardship. This continues to drive significant focus and investment towards cybersecurity and legal compliance into next year.” Executive and board scrutiny of cyber security preparedness hasn’t let up, either. Heightened Focus Gartner’s survey found that ANZ CIOs would have a significantly heightened focus on ensuring compliance and minimising risks (92% - up from 57% last year). That makes perfect sense, with Australia’s regulatory landscape tightening and more stringent laws enacted to increase CIOs’ stewardship obligations. Checkpoint So, as Q4 2025 looms on the horizon: how are your 2025 IT advances panning out vs your 2025 plans? Here at Generic Systems Australia we’re continuing to see many Australian and New Zealand enhancing their core cyber security through class-leading Managed File Transfer solutions. We have many years of experience helping our customers do that, from the initial scoping of legacy data transfer approaches through to zero-cost Proof of Concepts and hassle-free Migration Services. If you’d like a to discuss how your organisation’s cyber security can be boosted by a cost effective Managed File Transfer solution, please feel welcome to contact me. I’m always happy to have an obligation-free discussion. Previous Next

< News 5 Signs You Need a Managed File Transfer Solution 14 Nov 2023 5 Signs You Need a Managed File Transfer Solution Does your organisation rely on transferring sensitive data between employees, customers and trading partners? Most do. And that means just one wrong move by an employee – for example, failing to encrypt a sensitive file – could land you with a huge fine, and lose you customers. So it’s worth spending a moment considering how your team is performing the regular, essential task of moving data around. And, to ask the key question: “Is it time I installed a better, safer and more efficient way to transfer data?” Here are some of the key signs that your business is ready for a Managed File Transfer solution. Sign 1: Still Using Outdated Ways to Send Data A surprising number of organisations still rely on outdated protocols and clunky scripts to move precious data around. However, as I explained in a recent article, these legacy methods increase the risk of human error, take time away from more critical tasks, and are difficult to maintain. A Managed File Transfer (MFT) solution like GoAnywhere MFT is easy to use, easy to audit, requires little maintenance, and removes manual tasks from your stretched IT team’s To Do list. Sign 2: Targeted by Cybercriminals Ask your IT team how much growth they’re seeing in attempted cybercrime incursions. Frightening, isn’t it!? With hackers escalating their efforts to extort your business and customers, it’s more essential than ever to secure your data and maintain a ‘circle of trust’ with your supply chain partners. A leading MFT, such as GoAnywhere MFT, employs the latest encryption algorithms to reduce the risk of data breaches during transit. Features like Access Controls, and Multi-factor Authentication, safeguard sensitive information from unauthorised access. Sign 3: Need to Comply with Government & Industry Regulations In response to escalating cybercrime, governments and industry regulators are imposing ever greater requirements on business to ensure they protect consumers’ personal data. From health data (hospital records, test results), to banking data (debit and credit card numbers, bank account details), to identity data (home address, government id), businesses that fail to take responsible measures to protect sensitive data face growing sanctions. Even worse, a breach may not only cost your organisation time and money to remediate, it may ruin your reputation. A leading MFT, such as GoAnywhere MFT, helps ensure your file transfers comply with regulatory requirements such as PCI DSS, HIPAA, HITECH, and GDPR. Features like auditing, reporting, role-based access, secure protocols, centralised security controls, encryption, and key management protect employee and consumer data from harmful security mishaps. Sign 4: Need to Exchange Data in the Cloud Many organisations are moving business processes to the cloud, and now need to exchange files with trading partners in the cloud. But how can transfers to and from the cloud, over public telecommunications networks, be protected? From streamlining and automating cloud file transfers to platforms like Amazon Web Services, and Microsoft Azure, to integrating with popular web and cloud services like SharePoint and Google Drive, working with a partner in the cloud using an MFT is a smooth, reliable and safe process. Sign 5: Need to Adapt to Changing Network Conditions Research by Rand Group found that a single hour of system downtime can cost a medium-sized business a six figure sum. As organisations and trading partners become increasingly integrated, it’s critical that file transfers are performed without delay or disruption. Whereas a document containing a batch of important transactions may once have been delivered over several hours, today’s fast pace of business requires it to take mere seconds. An enterprise-calibre file transfer solution should have a high availability plan in place. The right solution will provide active-passive and active-active (i.e. clustering) methods for organisations who need to keep their processes running no matter the situation at hand. Clustering provides the best high availability by running multiple servers simultaneously. Therefore, if one goes down, file transfers and workflows will continue to run on other servers so communication with your trading partners won’t be interrupted. Seen the Signs…? If you’ve observed any of the above warning signs in your business, it may be time to consider upgrading to a secure MFT such as GoAnywhere. The acknowledged leading Managed File Transfer offering, GoAnywhere is an all-in-one solution, automating and encrypting file transfers from a centralised dashboard. It not only simplifies the completion of critical business initiatives, but also reduces the time spent on manual file transfers and in-house processes. GoAnywhere saves businesses time, money, and reputation. If you’d like to learn more about how GoAnywhere MFT could add to your organisation’s bottom line, please feel free to contact me ( bradley@gensys.com.au ), or read more at the Generic Systems Australia website. I’d be happy to offer you an obligation-free discussion, no cost trial, or Proof of Concept. Bradley Copson, Business Manager, Generic Systems Australia “Local Experts in Secure Managed File Transfer” Previous Next