Regulation, Risk and Resilience: Why Australia’s Cyber Landscape Is a Channel Opportunity

Channel partners have a unique opportunity to become trusted advisors as organisations adapt to stricter cyber regulations and reporting requirements.

APAC’s unique combination of accelerated digital adoption and fragmented regulatory environments makes organisations more susceptible to advanced cyber campaigns.

Cyber regulation in Australia has undergone significant changes in recent years, moving from voluntary guidelines to mandatory obligations for businesses, broadened government powers to address these cyber threats. Key regulations include the Cyber Security Act 2024, which introduced mandatory ransomware payment reporting and security standards for smart devices, and the Security of Critical Infrastructure (SOCI) Act 2018, which requires organisations in 11 key sectors to report incidents within 12–72 hours.

More recently, Cyber Security (Security Standards for Smart Devices) Rules 2025 mandate security standards for internet-connected consumer products.

“Many organisations aren't aware they have obligations”

Helping customers navigate more stringent obligations and shorter reporting windows has created an opportunity for channel partners to act as trusted advisors, especially among customers who are unprepared for regulatory changes.

Luke Irwin, Founder and Cybersecurity Strategist at Aegis Cyber, warned that gaps in awareness and accountability are prevalent:

“Many organisations aren't aware that they have obligations under the Corporations Act to assess cybersecurity and under AICD rules. They are required to assess and evaluate cybersecurity risk. They don't. Until the regulators start actively prosecuting that at a serious level, nothing will change. The level of prosecutions that have come out of the Privacy Act in Australia is woefully small.

“We’ve had changes to privacy laws coming through, and there’s some good stuff in there that I hope will drive a material change in cybersecurity culture across organisations, but I don't think it'll do that until someone gets scalped.

“Until the regulator goes after someone and slaps them with a ridiculous fine, I don't think it'll change.”

Execution gaps

These preparedness gaps are further confirmed by CRN’s research. CRN surveyed channel partners in APAC to understand how their customers are responding to the changing cyber landscape in the region. 56% of Australian-based respondents report customers are “well prepared” for Australia’s Privacy and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024 and 8% report that their customers are “fully compliant”. However, 11% report they are “somewhat prepared” and 6% report “beginning preparation”.

The top compliance challenges observed by respondents were implementing required technical controls, data localisation and residency requirements, and skills and expertise gaps.

When partners were asked how regulatory requirements influence customers’ technology choices, the top choice was accelerated cloud adoption with compliance in mind, a need for more robust data protection and encryption, and an increased need for automated compliance reporting.

How buying decisions are impacted

These findings indicate customers in Australia have varying levels of preparedness for cyber legislation; they are taking action but still have execution gaps around implementing controls, meeting data residency demands, closing skills gaps, and controlling compliance costs. They aren’t just “buying more security” in response to regulatory changes, they’re shifting their security strategy towards compliance-by-design technology.

Andrew Groth, Executive Vice President, Asia Pacific at Infosys shared how regulation is reshaping technology buying decisions, with organisations now required to demonstrate compliance:

“We see organisations moving from generic ‘best-practice’ frameworks to unified, compliance-driven control sets. Regulations are shifting the focus from simply protecting customers to building digital trust and demonstrating cyber resilience.

“In APAC, compliance is no longer reactive, it’s becoming operationalised. Most organisations understand obligations under frameworks like SOCI, CPS 230, and privacy regulations, but audits increasingly demand evidence of effectiveness, not just policy alignment.”

Customers want platforms and services that make regulatory obligations easier to meet by default, rather than relying on manual processes and reporting. For channel partners, responding to regulatory changes in Australia has created an important opportunity to act as a trusted advisor. By providing the necessary guidance and tools for implementing technical controls and demonstrating how they relate to regulatory compliance, channel partners can position their security services not just as point solutions, but as enablers of regulatory confidence.

"A timely reminder"

Steve Stavridis, Regional Vice President, APJ, OpenText Cybersecurity agrees that the evolving threat landscape presents a clear opportunity for channel partners to step up as strategic enablers of cyber resilience across APAC.

“As digital transformation accelerates across APAC, cyber risks are increasing at a pace that often leaves organisations exposed, with critical weaknesses only becoming apparent when incidents occur. Operational issues such as cloud misconfigurations remain a significant driver of data loss and disruption, even as external threats continue to increase. At the same time, growing regulatory pressure is raising the bar for governance, resilience and recoverability.

“However, recovery maturity across the region remains uneven, with many organisations still unable to achieve rapid, low-impact recovery when incidents occur. As a result, even short periods of downtime can translate into significant business disruption.

“With organisations increasingly adopting hybrid security models that combine in-house capabilities with managed services, there is a significant opportunity for partners to play a more strategic, advisory role. By delivering integrated backup, recovery and business continuity solutions, partners can help customers strengthen resilience while fitting into flexible, shared-responsibility operating models.

“This shift is further reinforced by changing customer priorities, with growing demand for unified, integrated platforms that support both protection and recovery. Within this environment, partners that can deliver end-to-end resilience outcomes—reducing downtime, improving recovery speeds and simplifying complexity—will be best positioned to drive long-term value.

“This is a timely reminder for organisations to reinforce core security disciplines and ensure that controls, compliance measures and recovery capabilities are consistently applied across increasingly complex digital environments.”