A cyber security threat was reported to the national watchdog once every eight minutes in the past financial year, new data suggests.
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The Australian Cyber Security Centre's latest Annual Cyber Threat Report revealed more than 67,500 cybercrimes were reported in the 2020-21 financial year, an increase of 13 per cent from the year before.
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Macedon Ranges Criminal Investigation Unit Detective Senior Constable Chris Gomez said cybercrime has always and will always be an issue in the region.
Detective Senior Constable Gomez said although it's a prominent issue, he hadn't seen a large increase in cybercrime reports in the last 12 months regionally.
"I don't think these cyber-attacks and scams are becoming more prevalent, I think they are as common as they have ever been and they have always been an issue," he said.
Losses from cybercrimes totalled more than $33 billion during the 12-month period across Australia.
The report found cyber criminals exploited the COVID situation in Australia, with more than 18,000 cybercrimes related to the pandemic.
The highest proportion of cybercrime reports made in the 2020-21 financial year were made from entities or individuals in Queensland and Victoria, accounting for approximately 30 per cent each.
While a lower number of reports were made overall, the highest average financial losses were self-reported by victims located in South Australia and Western Australia.
The report also found about one-quarter of all cyber security incidents affected critical infrastructure such as health, education and transport, while 35 per cent of incidents affected governments at all three levels.
"No sector of the Australian economy was immune from the impacts of cybercrime and other malicious activity," the report said.
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"Government agencies at all levels, large organisations, critical infrastructure providers, small to medium enterprises, families and individuals were all targeted over the reporting period."
Detective Senior Constable Gomez said there were some common sense tips many residents could use to avoid cybercrime.
"Don't have an obvious password, don't give uot your personal details to anyone over the phone and if someone is calling from a business - try and confirm their identity and get their contact number and compare it to what is advertised on google and call them back," he said.
"It's very important to be aware of these threats, it's very often that people struggle to get the money back that is lost if they have been a victim from an online scam and willingly sent money to someone, it's hard for banks to recover that money."
- AAP
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