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The Western Australian Government plans to help Australians in the Great Southern be more informed of the growing number of rampant cyberattacks. Most of the attacks were scams and identity theft.
The McGowan government has recently partnered with the Australia and New Zealand national identity and cyber support service (IDCARE) to conduct roadshows throughout Western Australia. The partnership aims to deliver twenty Cyber Resilience Outreach Clinics (CROC).
According to Rob Blackmore, team leader for community outreach of IDCARE, they will be visiting towns “from the Great Southern to the Kimberley in a cyber truck. Co-branded with WA ScamNet, to provide in-person support to communities impacted by identity theft and other cyber security incidents.”
Blackmore added that the twenty locations they will visit include “Katanning, Busselton, Bunbury, Collie, Mandurah, Perth, York, Dongara, Geraldton, Carnarvon, Roebourne, Port Hedland, Newman, Bidyadanga, Derby, Fitzroy Crossing, Halls Creek and Wyndham.”
The locations were selected considering geographical events, WA ScamNet, and IDCARE data, and the roadshow is explicitly tailored to how cyberattacks impact the consumers in each area.
The roadshow was inspired by the severe impact of cyberattacks in the previous year. In a recent report by ScamNet, a total of 1,203 Western Australians were scammed, losing a total of about $15,988,513. Losses in 2022 were up by $1,196,805 from the 1,041 losses in 2021 and a $4,188,513 increase from the 952 losses in 2020.
According to Steph Marsh, consumer protection senior regional officer for the Great Southern, only about 13 per cent of scam losses are reported, which is just the tip of the iceberg. Marsh added, “Sometimes older people who may not be as IT-savvy can be more susceptible, and we suspect we’ve got an older population sometimes in the regions. There have been some other types of scams that have gone around in the last year or two that have particularly targeted rural communities, such as fake or non-existent farm machinery.”
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