Regular Cyber Health Checks: Why They Pay (In Dollars and Days)
- Paige Harkness
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
If you only tune your security after a crisis, you’ll keep paying crisis prices. Regular cyber health checks (lightweight, periodic reviews of your controls, risks and response readiness) cut breach costs, shrink downtime, and surface “silent” gaps before attackers do.
The Australian reality: high frequency, real money
One report every 6 minutes: Australians lodged 87,400+ cybercrime reports in FY2023–24. Small businesses reported $49,615 average loss per incident (medium: $62,870; large: $63,602).
BEC still bites: Self-reported losses from Business Email Compromise reached ~$84 million in FY2023–24; average >$55,000 per confirmed BEC incident.
Breach drivers: In Australia’s Notifiable Data Breaches (NDB) scheme, 69% from Jul-Dec 2024 breaches were malicious or criminal attacks; within cyber incidents, phishing/compromised credentials led (34%). 66% of breaches were identified within 30 days—leaving a third that weren’t.
What a good health check covers (and why it matters)
Patch & vulnerability hygiene: Exploitation as an initial access path grew 34% and now accounts for ~20% of breaches. Health checks validate patch SLAs and exposure on edge devices.
Identity & email security: The “human element” remains a major factor; checks ensure phishing-resistant MFA, conditional access, and reporting workflows actually work. (See also OAIC’s phishing-led incident share above.)
Backups & recovery: Routine restore tests and immutability reduce the chance that ransomware wipes out your safety net. (ASD also recommends regular backup validation.)
Cloud & third parties: Misconfigurations and supplier issues continue to feature in breaches; checks align configurations and vendor controls to baseline expectations.
People & process: Drills, tabletop exercises and clear incident runbooks cut indecision when minutes matter.
The measurable upside: cost and time saved
Lower breach costs with modernised controls: Organisations using security AI & automation saw ~USD $2.2M lower average breach costs (global) than those without—one of the largest levers you can pull after a health check flags gaps.
Global average breach cost context: The average cost per breach reached USD $4.88M in 2024; using AI/automation cut costs by up to $1.88M in that study. Health checks help prioritise where and how to deploy these capabilities.
Align to Australia’s baseline: the Essential Eight
The Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) recommends the Essential Eight as a baseline for resilience (application control, patching, macros, hardening, MFA, backups, application hardening, and restricting admin privileges). A regular health check measures your maturity against these controls and sets concrete uplift actions.
How often should you run health checks?
At least twice a year for most SMEs; quarterly if you handle sensitive data, face heightened fraud/BEC exposure, or operate internet-facing systems with rapid change. Tie each check to Essential Eight maturity targets, open vulnerabilities, and recent incidents or vendor changes.
What you’ll walk away with
A short, ranked risk list with quick wins (e.g., close externally exposed vulns; fix risky mail rules; enable phishing-resistant MFA).
A 90-day uplift plan mapped to Essential Eight controls (who/what/when).
Proof you can restore (backup test log), and proof you can respond (IR playbook + drill outcomes).
Executive-ready metrics (patch MTTR, phishing report rate, MFA coverage, vendor posture) you can trend quarter-on-quarter.
Regular cyber health checks pay for themselves: they steer investment to the controls that cut breach costs by millions (AI/automation) and directly target Australia’s top loss drivers (BEC, phishing, unpatched exposure). Start with the Essential Eight - Contact the ORCA Opti Team for your free Cyber Health Consult: hello@orcaopti.ai