Businesses across Australia are becoming more aware of cyber threats, but a lack of action from the small business community is making their organisations a major target, according to new research by trust management platform company, Vanta. 

Vanta’s annual State of Trustreport shows that cybersecurity threats are now the top concern of more than half (52%) of Australian business and IT leaders ahead of operational risk (41%), financial risk (40%) and brand reputation damage (30%). More than half of Australian businesses (58%) also say security risks for their organisation have never been higher.

However, Australia’s small business community isn’t doing enough to mitigate threats. Less than half (44%) of small Australian businesses (1 to 50 employees) say they have a dedicated security budget, and only two in three (66%) feel confident in their team’s ability to show the impact of their security program on the business.

Vanta’s report also finds that almost two-thirds (62%) of Australian organisations believe their security and compliance measures need improvement. Businesses across the board are spending on average nine working weeks per year to become compliant.

Vanta APAC general manager, Jonathon Coleman said, “After two years of major cyber breaches hitting the Australian headlines, Australian businesses are waking up to the very real idea of cyber threats. But awareness is only half the battle. Action is the other half — and as larger businesses invest more in their own cyber protection, the vulnerabilities left in the defences of small businesses become only more apparent to attackers, who tend to be opportunistic in nature.

“Compliance is a major step forward in improving cybersecurity, but historically the amount of time and effort organisations needed to put into compliance has been prohibitive. But we’re in the AI age now, where organisations can automate a large amount of compliance work, which helps make it less of a check-box exercise and more of a strong ongoing security measure that helps drive business.”

Two in three (66%) businesses now recognise that a more efficient approach to security and compliance will positively impact the business through better time and cost-savings and 63% acknowledge that good security practices will result in higher customer trust.