Banks have ‘big responsibility’ to avoid cyber crime and scams: Senator Paterson

Speaking in the Mortgage Business Spotlight podcast, the shadow minister for cyber security and shadow minister for countering foreign interference, Senator James Paterson, said one of the reasons why Australia is an attractive cyber target is because we are a wealthy country and undertake many digital transactions.

“There is probably no larger digital transaction that most Australians will do in their lifetime than entering into a mortgage or buying a property,” Senator Paterson said.

“Just thinking about the money transferred to pay a deposit, for example, is a great way for a criminal to make a lot of money,” he said.

Mr Paterson continued: “We need to make those systems more resilient. The banks have a big responsibility here because they facilitate most of those transactions and they do have the resources to step in and make sure that that is a secure transaction.”

The Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services, Stephen Jones, has also recently warned that banks are “tempting targets” for cyber criminals and scammers, with Westpac reporting that they have blocked over 700,000 attempted attacks on their internet-facing applications in August of this year, along with NAB reporting 50 million attacks each month.

Moreover, Suncorp Bank recently warned that its customers were being targeted by scammers in “spoofing” scams, and should be alert to receiving calls or texts claiming to be from Suncorp asking them to share sensitive information such as passwords or for monetary transfers.

“Fraud, online shopping, and online banking cyber crime types accounting for 54 per cent of all reports,” Mr Jones stated.

According to the Treasurer, Australians lost at least $2 billion to scams last year with that number expected to double to $4 billion in 2022.

Moreover, in October 2022, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) received the “highest number of scam reports for any month” in the year, with approximately 22,300 reports made and reportedly almost $50 million lost.

In addition, the Australian Cyber Security Centre saw over 76,000 cyber crime reports in the 2021–22 financial year, showing an increase in scams by 13 per cent.

You can hear more from James Paterson and the issue of cyber security in Australia on the Mortgage Business Podcast Network.

Tune in to the episode with the shadow minister for cyber security and shadow minister for countering foreign interference, Senator James Paterson, to find out how and why foreign interference and espionage have overtaken terrorism as the primary security concern for Australia, here.

[Related: Spotlight: The cyber security threats facing Australia]