It’s easy to see why ransomware is such a cash cow for cybercriminals. It’s more efficient and profitable than other cybercrimes and by exploiting our near-total dependence on the internet, bad actors can demand millions of dollars to restore operations. It’s also the worst-kept secret among Australia’s cyber community that businesses have been quietly paying millions in ransoms to bad actors who have stolen or encrypted their data.

Unsurprisingly the Australian Cyber Security Centre also reported this week that 200,000 home and office routers in Australia are at risk of being exploited. If you perhaps aren’t sure what that exploited means in context, imagine a hacker standing behind you 24×7 recording everything you look at and type such as usernames, passwords, credit card numbers, emails, everything! They could also send you to malicious websites, or deliver malware to your devices and steal or ransomware your data.

By now, you’ve likely seen the news about Optus, Australia's second-largest telco, having suffered a serious data breach, and the exposing of the private...

If all communication was abolished, society would crumble. Fast. Yet one area that I have noticed in the security industry, which I believe needs a lot more...