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A survey of Australian businesses by Cloudflare paints a picture of a volatile local landscape as some organisations report more than 11 data breaches in the last 12 months.

Connectivity firm Cloudflare has released a new report based on a survey of the cyber readiness of companies around Australia.

The report – *Navigating the New Security Landscape: Australia Cybersecurity Readiness Survey* – reveals a dangerous threat landscape that appears to be only getting worse.

The numbers are alarming. Forty-one per cent of Australian organisations surveyed reported they had experienced at least one data breach in the last 12 months, while 33 per cent claimed they had been breached a staggering 11 or more times in the same period.

Seventy-six per cent also said the frequency of data breaches was increasing, while for those businesses that had their data breached by a ransomware attack, fully half have paid the ransom – despite publicly pledging not to, according to Cloudflare. It may not sound positive, but this is actually better than the regional figures – 70 per cent of businesses in the Asia-Pacific region admitted to paying a ransom.

The most breached industries were manufacturing at 63 per cent, transportation at 57 per cent, and education at 48 per cent, and the forms of data most targeted by hackers were customer data at 62 per cent, financial data at 55 per cent, and user access credentials at 52 per cent.

Cyber security and data breaches are also driving significant costs to Australian businesses. Seventy-nine per cent of respondents indicated their organisation was spending 10 per cent of their IT budget on cyber security. Regulatory and compliance requirements are also a burden; 32 per cent of Australian organisations spend more than 5 per cent of their IT budgets on staying compliant, while 31 per cent spend more than 10 per cent.

“In our current environment, the impact of cyber attacks is being felt at every level, cyber security leaders face growing scrutiny, coupled with limited resources. Moreover, cyber security challenges are becoming increasingly complex to manage,” Steve Bray, head of Australia and New Zealand at Cloudflare, said in a statement.

“The intricate IT environments and architectures they oversee expose them to numerous threats. Cyber security leaders need to continuously evaluate their existing resources, tools, and strategies so they can be empowered to know what is needed to protect their organisations from evolving cyber threats.”

The data is based on a survey of 3,844 cyber security decision-makers from 14 companies in the Asia-Pacific region. 302 were from Australia, 205 from New Zealand, adding up to a total of 507 in the ANZ region.

**UPDATED **08/08/24 to add detailed ANZ numbers.

David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.