Trends in the COVID-19 environment The coronavirus pandemic exposed Australia to heightened cyber threats, with the health sector and key entities involved in the supply of the COVID-19 vaccine placed at particular risk. Australian individuals and families received large volumes of malicious emails and text messages themed to the pandemic, while many organisations – including health services – suffered compromises at the hands of cybercriminals who sought to profit from the global crisis. At the same time, state-sponsored actors sought access to sensitive information relating to the pandemic, including vaccine research, increasing the threat of cyber espionage to Australia. The ACSC has remained committed to protecting Australians from malicious cyber activity during this difficult time, including by disrupting cybercriminals operating offshore and working with industry partners to increase protective measures. From 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2021, the ACSC: ■ received over 1,500 cybercrime reports of malicious cyber activity related to the coronavirus pandemic (approximately four per day), with more than 75 per cent of these relating to individual Australians reporting loss of finances or personal information to scams and online fraud ■ received over 130 cybercrime reports related to entities involved in the COVID-19 response, and responded to nearly 120 cyber security incidents affecting health sector organisations ■ disrupted over 110 malicious COVID-19 themed websites, with assistance from Australia’s major telecommunications providers ■ launched a pilot program in September 2020, in collaboration with Telstra and Services Australia, to identify and reject illegitimate phishing text messages that impersonate myGov and Centrelink before they reach Telstra customers (see the ACSC initiative: Collaboration with Telstra and Services Australia to combat malicious COVID-19 themed phishing, page 27) ■ removed over 7,700 websites, since the service commenced in March 2021, that were hosting cybercrime activity from the internet (see ACSC initiative: Successful Takedown Notifications – COVID-19, page 28) ■ successfully conducted offensive cyber operations to combat cybercrime originating outside Australia. The ACSC identified offshore cybercriminals capitalising on the impacts of the pandemic by targeting Australian households and businesses using COVID-19 themed device scams and other malicious cyber activities. These were successfully disrupted by disabling the cybercriminals’ infrastructure and blocking their access to stolen information. Trends in the health sector Targeting of the health sector, particularly by cybercriminals, is one of the most significant cyber threats Australia has so far faced during the pandemic. The health sector in Australia reported the second highest number of cyber security incidents both overall and for ransomware-related cyber security incidents (see Figure 7 and Figure 8). This threat only grew as COVID-19 vaccines were developed and the Australian health sector started to rely on entities involved in the vaccine supply chain. The enormous pressures the health sector faced in responding to the pandemic increased its susceptibility to cyber incidents, with malicious cyber actors likely viewing health organisations as more vulnerable during this time. 26