Why We Must Protect Australia’s Digital Future With Education And IoT Sectors Under Siege

Cybercriminals are becoming faster and more sophisticated. Organisations need to understand the evolving threat landscape and know how to protect sensitive data from escalating risks. As cyber threats grow, Australia continues to report financial losses, data breaches and reputational harm across critical sectors.

Schools, universities and research institutions are becoming increasingly vulnerable as they embrace digital transformation. This shift requires updated protections to avoid further damage from targeted cyberattacks.

While new technologies support innovation, they also introduce new challenges. In Australia, the education sector and the Internet of Things (IoT) have emerged as high-risk areas. As IoT is integrated into industries such as healthcare, logistics and agriculture, weak configurations and poor cybersecurity controls leave them exposed.

According to Mimecast’s H2 2024 Global Threat Intelligence Report, which analysed over 90 billion data points from 42,000 customers, more than five billion threats were detected across these sectors in just six months. This volume reflects the sheer scale of potential global attack vectors.

The High Cost Of Breach Where Data And Reputation Are Under Attack

Australian education institutions are being targeted for sensitive data including student records, proprietary research, academic transcripts, tax file numbers and staff information. These incidents underscore systemic vulnerabilities that carry real reputational and operational risks.

Ransomware is a rising threat, with Australian institutions being targeted by criminal groups and nation-state actors. These include pro-Russia groups using distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks and cybercrime-as-a-service operators enabling widespread threats. The consequences have included data breaches, outages and financial losses.

The Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) recorded more than 1,100 cyber breaches during the 2023-24 financial year. This marked a sharp increase in both the frequency and complexity of attacks. The Cyber Security Hotline also saw a 12 per cent rise in calls, receiving over 36,700 enquiries.

The education sector ranked among the top five most targeted industries, accounting for approximately 6.2 per cent of incidents. In response, institutions are being encouraged to adopt Zero Trust models, strengthen password policies and use Ai-based automation to improve detection and response.

Attackers Are Increasingly Living Off Trusted Services (LOTS)

A growing trend involves attackers leveraging trusted services to bypass standard security defences. Known as “living off trusted services” (LOTS), this tactic renders conventional reputation and authentication checks ineffective.

Threat actors also target third-party suppliers and software products to gain access to broader networks. These supply chain intrusions often go unnoticed until significant damage is done.

Mimecast’s report draws on telemetry from millions of users, expert research and open-source intelligence. It highlights attack trends and makes recommendations for businesses to reduce exposure from human-centred threats and messaging attacks.

Emerging Ai-based threats include deepfakes and intelligent phishing campaigns targeting IoT systems. The complexity of attribution is growing, with blended techniques and shared toolkits across threat groups. Services like Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS), Phishing-as-a-Service (PhaaS) and Initial Access Brokers (IABs) are enabling scalable and repeatable attack campaigns.

Threat actors frequently use overlapping infrastructure, making traditional attribution techniques – like signature or infrastructure detection – increasingly unreliable.

Mimecast’s research shows that cloud services like Microsoft, Google and Evernote are frequently used by attackers to host malicious payloads or phishing pages. Other cloud services are often exploited for more targeted components of campaign infrastructure.

Working Together For A Unified Approach To Secure Australia’s Education And SMB Sectors

Despite the risks, there are opportunities to improve cybersecurity across the education sector and among small to medium businesses. Technical controls such as firewalls, multi-factor authentication and quarterly audits are vital. However, investment in cybersecurity training for both staff and students is equally critical.

Policy development, strong governance frameworks, secure procurement practices and partnerships with cybersecurity providers will also play a key role in driving resilience.

Threat data from the second half of 2024 highlights the overlap between rising geopolitical tensions and increased cyber activity. The uptick in attacks targeting educational institutions and IoT systems is a clear signal that coordinated efforts are needed.

To meet the challenge, governments, school administrators and cybersecurity professionals will need to work together to establish systems that can withstand the pressures of a fast-changing threat environment.

Lizelle Hughes is ANZ Partner Leader at Mimecast.

Last Updated on June 7, 2025 by Lizelle Hughes