A speech by Greg Medcraft, ASIC Chairman, Australian Securities and Investments Commission, Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry business reception event (Melbourne, Australia), 15 December 2016
Introduction
I wanted to talk to you tonight about a critical issue in today’s environment. A key risk that is increasingly on the minds of regulators, governments, and businesses. And one that is becoming more and more critical as technology evolves at an increasingly rapid pace. That issue is cyber risk.
Technology developments mean we are now able to make thousands of transactions in a second and send masses of data around the world instantly, but at the same time, this has increased the risks we are exposed to.
There has been significant growth in the number, sophistication and severity of global cyber attacks in the last few years. Cyber attacks are happening all the time.
Between July 2015 and June 2016, CERT (the national Computer Emergency Response Team, which sits within the Attorney-General’s Department) responded to almost 15,000 cyber security incidents – 418 of which involved systems of national interest and critical infrastructure.
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) also recently found that 65% of Australian organisations experienced cyber crime in the last 24 months.
So tonight, I’d like to touch on:
- ASIC’s vision – and what we see as our five key challenges
- what is cyber resilience and why is it important
- what ASIC is doing in the area of promoting cyber resilience – and what is happening in the international sphere.