For Australian local councils, cyber security has become one of the most significant operational risks of the decade.

Ransomware attacks continue to make headlines, phishing campaigns are becoming increasingly sophisticated, and the growing reliance on digital services means even a relatively minor cyber incident can have a major impact on council operations and community trust.

Many councils have invested considerable effort into strengthening their cyber security posture through initiatives such as the Australian Cyber Security Centre's (ACSC) Essential Eight. While these preventative measures are critical, they only tell part of the story.

The uncomfortable reality is no organisation can guarantee it won't experience a cyber incident.

The real measure of cyber resilience isn't whether an attack occurs—it's how effectively your organisation responds when it does. So, if your council experienced a cyber incident tomorrow morning, would your team know exactly what to do?

🔍 Prevention Is Important. Preparedness Is Essential.

For many IT teams, cyber security efforts naturally focus on reducing risk through controls such as multi-factor authentication, patch management, application control and user awareness training.

These measures are essential. However, even organisations with mature security controls can experience cyber incidents through zero-day vulnerabilities, compromised suppliers, human error or increasingly sophisticated social engineering attacks.

That's why cyber resilience extends well beyond prevention. It includes your council's ability to:

• Detect suspicious activity quickly
• Contain an incident before it spreads
• Recover critical systems efficiently
• Communicate effectively with stakeholders
• Learn and improve after the event

Preparation is about ensuring your organisation can continue delivering essential services when the unexpected happens.

📋 1. Do You Have a Cyber Incident Response Plan That People Actually Use?

Most councils have some form of incident response documentation. The more important question is whether anyone would know how to use it during a real incident.

A practical Incident Response Plan should clearly outline:

• Roles and responsibilities
• Escalation procedures
• Technical containment steps
• Internal and external communication processes
• Key third-party contacts
• Evidence preservation requirements

Just as importantly, the plan should be reviewed regularly and updated whenever key staff, technology platforms or service providers change.

💾 2. Have You Tested Your Backups—or Just Assumed They'll Work?

Backups are often considered the last line of defence against ransomware. Unfortunately, organisations sometimes discover too late that backups were incomplete, corrupted or unable to restore critical systems within acceptable timeframes.

Ask yourself:

• When was the last successful restoration test?
• How long would it take to recover your most important business systems?
• Are backups protected from ransomware?
• Have Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs) been defined?

👥 3. Does Everyone Know Their Role During a Cyber Incident?

Cyber incidents rarely remain an IT issue for long. Depending on the situation, they may involve:

• Executive leadership
• Communications teams
• Customer service staff
• Legal advisers
• External cyber security specialists
• Insurance providers
• Third-party technology vendors

When roles haven't been clearly defined beforehand, confusion can quickly become one of the biggest risks. Every council should understand:

• Who declares a cyber incident?
• Who informs the CEO or General Manager?
• Who communicates with affected customers?
• Who engages external specialists?
• Who makes critical operational decisions?

📊 4. Could You Detect an Incident Before Someone Else Does?

The earlier suspicious activity is detected, the greater the opportunity to contain it before significant damage occurs. Consider whether your council can confidently answer these questions:

• Are critical systems generating meaningful security alerts?
• Is someone actively reviewing those alerts?
• Would suspicious activity overnight or during weekends be detected?
• Could you identify unusual behaviour before systems begin failing?

Smaller councils may not have dedicated Security Operations Centres, but managed detection services and automated monitoring can significantly improve visibility without requiring additional internal resources.

🧪 5. Have You Ever Practised Your Response?

A cyber incident response plan that has never been tested is simply an assumption. Tabletop exercises allow councils to walk through realistic cyber scenarios without disrupting day-to-day operations. These sessions often reveal:

• Outdated contact lists
• Unclear decision-making authority
• Communication challenges
• Documentation gaps
• Technical recovery issues

More importantly, they help build confidence across both technical and executive teams.

Like fire drills, the objective isn't perfection.

It's preparation.

🇦🇺 A Practical (and Free) Resource from the ACSC

If your council hasn't conducted a cyber incident exercise before, you don't need to start from scratch.

The Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) provides a free resource called Exercise in a Box—a collection of ready-to-use tabletop exercises designed to help Australian organisations practise responding to cyber incidents.

These guided scenarios cover realistic situations such as ransomware attacks and phishing incidents, encouraging participants to discuss:

• Roles and responsibilities
• Decision-making
• Communication processes
• Technical response
• Recovery planning

For councils with limited resources, it's an excellent way to strengthen preparedness without needing specialist facilitation or expensive software.

👉 You can access Exercise in a Box on the ACSC website and start running practical cyber response exercises with your team.

The best time to discover a gap in your incident response plan is during a tabletop exercise—not during a real cyber incident.

✅ A Quick Cyber Readiness Check

How many of these statements can your council confidently answer "Yes" to?

• We have a documented and regularly reviewed Incident Response Plan.
• Our backups are routinely tested through full restoration exercises.
• Staff understand their responsibilities during a cyber incident.
• Executive leadership knows how incidents are escalated and managed.
• We can detect suspicious activity quickly.
• We regularly conduct cyber incident exercises.
• Critical supplier and emergency contact information is kept current.
• We understand how long it would take to recover our priority systems.

If several answers are "No" or "Not Sure", it's worth treating those areas as opportunities for improvement rather than waiting until they're exposed during a real incident.

📖 Continue the Conversation

Cyber incident preparedness is just one piece of the broader cyber resilience puzzle.

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