La Trobe researchers have analysed some of the biggest cybersecurity incidents in Australia, identifying trends and common factors that contribute to data and privacy breaches.
Dr ASM Kayes, Senior Lecturer in Cybersecurity, says he hopes the analysis will help to safeguard individuals and organisations from future incidents.
“Privacy breaches can have far-reaching consequences, including identity theft and life-threatening situations,” Dr Kayes says.
“We reviewed six major cybersecurity incidents, focusing on the type of compromised information, the root causes, and the severity and level of compromise associated with these incidents.”
The findings indicates that while all sectors are facing increased cybersecurity challenges, certain sectors are experiencing more severe impacts. These include the public, information, finance and healthcare sectors.
“We also looked at some of the common contributing factors, which included weak or inadequate security measures, human vulnerability, a lack of regular security audits, insufficient data protection policies and poor incident response."
“Our research also highlighted a lack of cybersecurity awareness, which is contributing to the prevalence of privacy breaches.”
Based on this analysis, the researchers have proposed an AI-based framework to analyse cyber threats, understand attacker behaviours and identify illegitimate privacy policies.
“Ultimately, we hope this analysis contributes to the development of robust frameworks and technologies that effectively mitigate data and privacy breaches and safeguard individuals’ rights to privacy in an increasingly interconnected digital landscape,” says Dr Kayes.
