Australian businesses want better and simpler cybersecurity

59% of Australian businesses are more concerned about their organizations' security than they were six months ago, with one in two businesses in Australia experiencing a cyberattack in 2024, according to a report by JumpCloud.

Businesses in Australia feel they are unprepared for cyberattacks, according to a new report from JumpCloud. The findings also revealed that most Australian businesses are not investing enough in cybersecurity.

Titled ‘From Chaos to Control: Simplifying IT in the Fast Lane of Change’, the report surveyed 300 respondents in Australia in November 2024. Findings also revealed that businesses in the country have experienced high incidence of data breaches and cyberattacks.

Specifically, 59% of Australian businesses are more concerned about their organizations' security than they were six months ago. This comes as more than one in two businesses in Australia experienced a cyberattack in 2024, higher than both the US (41%) and the UK (45%).

Both Australian and UK businesses are also currently spending less than their US counterparts on cybersecurity. However, the report stated that this could change with most spending in cybersecurity expected over the next 12 months, with one in four anticipating a significant increase.

While there is a lack of investment in cybersecurity from Australian business, the report also revealed challenges in AI deployment as well as skills shortage as remote working and layoffs continue to be a problem.

For AI, Australian businesses are concerned on the complexities and cyber risk that could arise from its deployment. 70% of organizations say AI is outpacing their ability to protect against threats (compared with 60% in the UK and 70% in the US), and 36% of organizations faced AI-generated attacks (compared with 29% in the UK and 33% in the US).

At the same time, nearly one in five businesses in Australia believe they’re still moving too slowly around AI, but an equal number believe they’re moving too fast. Apart from skills shortage, organizations are also split on employee access to AI. 42% are encouraging staff to use AI tools like ChatGPT but 33% are blocking them from access. This conservatism is higher in Australia than in the US and UK.

Increasing demand for simplified and unified tech

According to predictions by Gartner, IT spending in Australia is expected to reach AU$147 billion in 2025, an increase of 8.7% from 2024. However, these figures do not reflect the total spending allocation for cybersecurity among Australian business.

The Australian government continues to advocate for businesses to increase their focus and budget allocation to cybersecurity. The country faced several high profile cyberattacks that led to major disruptions in recent times that has seen the government allocated AU$1.8 billion in 2024 over three years to improve cybersecurity and service delivery.

Despite this, JumpCloud’s report revealed that Australian businesses are struggling with complexity as they scale and have a desire for more unified solutions. After security (56%), new services/application rollouts and managing multiple types of devices were the top IT challenges for Australian businesses (47% and 42% respectively).

Unsurprisingly, 84% see a single platform to manage identity, access, and security as the best way forward. This makes perfect sense as currently 68% report using five to 10 tools or more to manage the employee lifecycle, including device management and security, with 11% using over 15 different tools.

Cybersecurity vendors and partners in the Asia Pacific region have also indicated businesses are looking at the best ways they can consolidate their cybersecurity. While the platfomization represents the biggest opportunity to consolidate cybersecurity, having simple and unified management capabilities also helps business deal with the shortage of skills in cybersecurity.

Rajat Bhargava, CEO and co-founder of JumpCloud, said that Australian business leaders are sending out a clear message.

"Australian businesses urgently need better security and are prepared to increase spending on defence. But they’re struggling with the sheer number and complexity of solutions available and navigating the opportunities and potential threats that AI represents,” commented Bhargava.

He added that the data shows that Australian businesses are less likely to use a managed service provider (MSP) to support their IT needs, mostly due to cost, though many anticipate boosting their investment.

“There’s an opportunity for MSPs to offer a more prominent role in cybersecurity, particularly when it comes to managing cybersecurity tools and SaaS," said Bhargava.

Meanwhile, remote work is also adding to the challenges in managing cybersecurity for Australian businesses. Be it the cost of solutions involved in managing remote workers (42%) and the challenges of ongoing management of remote workers (38%), it’s not easy for employees either, with one in four having to manage over 10 different passwords to access IT resources.