NAB launches cyber security summit

NAB has launched the Small Business Cyber Security Summit in Canberra to help small businesses understand how they can better protect themselves from cyber criminals.

NAB chief customer officer business and private banking Anthony Healy said the major bank will conduct a small business roadshow to drive education and awareness to help small businesses defend themselves against threats.

“Cyber crime costs the Australian economy more than $1 billion annually and half of all cyber crime is targeted at small businesses,” Mr Healy said.

“Across Australia and often in regional areas, we see hundreds of small businesses and agribusinesses every year who are unfortunately targeted by cyber criminals through tactics like identity theft, romance scams and invoice fraud.”

NAB released a tool kit at the summit for small businesses with guidance and advice for customers around the types of common threats including invoice scams or ransomware and steps owners can take to update their defences such as encrypting data or employing multi-factor authentication for identity protection.

“It’s great to stand alongside the Council of Small Business Organisations Australia (COSBOA), the Australian Cyber Security Centre, AustCyber, and the Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman to create awareness on this topic and see the Australian government’s 2020 Cyber Security Strategy Review under way, which will play an important role to address this issue,” Mr Healy said.   

The NAB Cyber Security Roadshow will begin in late October with a series of regional events to give NAB small business customers around the country the opportunity to learn cyber protection skills and speak to directly to those in the cyber security field.

NAB also announced it will next month collaborate with IT systems integration company Outcomex to offer its 400,000 small business customers the Cisco Umbrella product at a special preferential price.

Cisco Umbrella is a cloud security platform that helps customers protect their operating systems and provides first line defence against cyber threats.

[Related: NAB scraps fees in ‘clean-up program’]