$23.4 million Cyber Wardens scheme kicks off with Melbourne business beta session

Forty Victorian small businesses will today experience their first hands-on Cyber Wardens session, a debut event for the cybersecurity training scheme set to receive more $23 million in federal government funding.

Cyber Wardens, led by the Council of Small Business Organisations of Australia (COSBOA), is an industry-powered initiative designed to provide small business operators the tools and education they need to ward off digital threats.

Created in partnership with Telstra, Commonwealth Bank, and input from the Australian Cyber Security Centre, Cyber Wardens received $23.4 million in funding through the 2023-2023 federal budget, putting it front and centre of Canberra’s small business defence strategy.

Thursday’s beta testing event, held at Telstra’s Security Operations Centre in the Melbourne CBD, will see participants engage with the Cyber Wardens e-learning platform for the first time.

Speaking to SmartCompany ahead of the event, Matthew Addison, COSBOA chair, said the event will road test the e-learning solution while allowing small businesses to provide their feedback.

“The small businesses in the room will be helping that test phase,” Addison said.

“We’re wanting to make sure that we give something that is implementable for small business.”

While data breaches affecting major companies and tens of thousands of customers made headlines last year, small businesses are no less vulnerable to sophisticated cyber criminals.

Data gathered in 2021 by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner showed 96% of data breaches affected 5,000 individuals or fewer, with 71% affecting 100 people or fewer, suggesting bad actors are not only focused on the nation’s largest companies.

Hardcore tech savvy is not the only tool bad actors are using, either; cyber criminals are using simple but cunning methods to fool staff into handing over details and finances.

During a Cyber Wardens panel discussion in May, business owners heard of a small business’ funds being successfully siphoned to an external bank account, all because a scammer managed to exploit a director’s out-of-office email.

Today’s Melbourne session will be followed by an August 1 Cyber Wardens event in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, as the initiative reaches out to regional Australian businesses no less susceptible to cyber threats than their metropolitan counterparts.