Financial services industry one of the biggest victims of cybercrime

Banking and finance is one of the industries most heavily affected by cybercrime, according to the Australian Cyber Security Centre's 2015 Threat Report.

Banking and financial services, energy, communications, the defence industry and transport were the five non-government sectors that drew most heavily on the assistance of CERT Australia, the government's computer emergency response team, last year.

The ACSC report said CERT responded to 11,073 cyber security incidents affecting Australian business last year, 153 of which involved "systems of national interest, critical infrastructure and government."

The number of incidents increased in 2014 but the report did not say by how much.

Banking and financial services accounted for 20 per cent of incident responses by CERT affecting systems of national interest and critical infrastructure.

"The technological and financial barriers to developing an effective attack capability are diminishing, increasing the threat of a more diverse set of state and non-state-based cyber attacks in future," ACSC said.

It said Australia's relatively high wealth and high use of technology, including social media, email, online banking and government services, made it an attractive target for organised crime syndicates.

The report cited industry estimates of the annual cost of cybercrime at around A$1 billion in 2013. This is based on the cost to individuals and does not include the cost to business and government.

ACSC said organisations that implemented the top four strategies to mitigate targeted cyber intrusions outlined in the Australian Government Information Security Manual could mitigate 85 per cent of targeted cyber intrusions. It did not say how many organisations met that benchmark.