Since the COVID-19 lockdowns sent millions of Australian office
workers home, the risk and occurrence of data breaches has
skyrocketed. Some organisations have responded to the heightened
risk better than others. In some cases, increased vigilance has
improved information security measures. However, the net effect is
likely to be a marked increase in the number of data breaches
(including those which must be notified).
There are several factors behind this. Firstly, many
organisations were completely unprepared for a situation requiring
their employees to take their work home with them. In the mad rush
to enable this, information security took a back seat. IT support
departments found themselves under extreme pressure and often took
shortcuts to increase throughput while responding to the slew of
support tickets from those working remotely for the first time.
Many organisations by default allowed the use of personal devices
for work purposes, resulting in personal
