For Australian local councils, cybersecurity has become an increasingly important operational risk.
Ransomware, phishing, compromised identities and other cyber threats can create consequences that extend well beyond the IT environment. As councils become more reliant on digital services, even a relatively contained cyber incident can affect operations, information and community trust.
Many councils have invested considerable effort into strengthening their cybersecurity posture through initiatives such as the Australian Cyber Security Centre's (ACSC) Essential Eight.
These preventative measures are critical. But they only tell part of the story. Even organisations with mature cybersecurity controls cannot eliminate cyber risk entirely.
That's why the real measure of cyber resilience isn't simply whether an organisation can prevent an attack. It's also how effectively it can detect, respond to and recover from an incident when one occurs.
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, cybersecurity 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 compromised suppliers, human error, social engineering, previously unknown vulnerabilities or other attack methods.
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
Ultimately, preparedness is about ensuring your organisation can continue delivering important 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 people 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. An Incident Response Plan shouldn't simply be a document that exists for compliance purposes.
It should provide practical guidance that people can follow when decisions need to be made quickly and the organisation is operating under pressure.
2. Have You Tested Your Backups — or Just Assumed They'll Work?
Backups can play a critical role in recovering from ransomware and other disruptive incidents. Unfortunately, organisations can discover too late that backups are 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 appropriately protected from ransomware?
- Have Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs) been defined?
There's an important distinction between having a backup and knowing you can recover. For councils increasingly dependent on technology to deliver services, that distinction matters.
3. Does Everyone Know Their Role During a Cyber Incident?
Cyber incidents rarely remain an IT issue for long. Depending on the situation, a serious incident may involve:
- executive leadership
- communications teams
- customer service staff
- legal advisers
- external cybersecurity specialists
- insurance providers
- third-party technology vendors
When roles haven't been clearly defined beforehand, confusion can quickly become a risk of its own. Every council should understand:
- Who declares a cyber incident?
- Who informs the CEO or General Manager?
- Who communicates with affected stakeholders?
- Who engages external specialists?
- Who makes critical operational decisions?
These aren't questions you want people trying to answer for the first time in the middle of an incident. Technical response is important, but so are leadership, communication and decision-making.
4. Could You Detect an Incident Before Someone Else Does?
The earlier suspicious activity is detected, the greater the opportunity to investigate and potentially contain an incident before the impact becomes more significant. 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 unusual behaviour be identified before systems begin failing?
Smaller councils may not have dedicated Security Operations Centres, and building that capability internally may not be realistic. Managed detection services and automated monitoring can provide additional visibility without necessarily requiring councils to build an equivalent capability from scratch.
The objective is straightforward: identify potential problems as early as possible, so the council has more time to respond.
5. Have You Ever Practised Your Response?
A cyber incident response plan that has never been tested still contains a lot of assumptions. Tabletop exercises allow councils to walk through realistic cyber scenarios without disrupting day-to-day operations. These sessions can reveal issues such as:
- 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 necessarily need to start from scratch. The Australian Cyber Security Centre provides a free resource called Exercise in a Box — a collection of ready-to-use exercises designed to help Australian organisations practise responding to cyber incidents.
These guided scenarios can help participants work through areas such as:
- roles and responsibilities
- decision-making
- communication processes
- technical response
- recovery planning
For councils with limited resources, this can provide a practical starting point for testing assumptions and identifying gaps in existing incident response arrangements.
You can access Exercise in a Box through the ACSC website and use the exercises to begin testing your council's response. The best time to discover a gap in your incident response plan is during an 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 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.
Cyber readiness isn't about being able to guarantee that an incident will never happen. It's about increasing the likelihood that, if something does go wrong, your council can respond decisively, recover effectively and continue supporting the services its community relies on.
Continue the Conversation
Cyber incident preparedness is just one part of the broader technology resilience picture. Cybersecurity, legacy systems, AI governance, workforce capability, digital services and budget pressures are increasingly interconnected — and each can influence a council's ability to operate and serve its community.
If you'd like to explore those broader challenges, you may also like: The Top 7 IT Challenges Facing Australian Local Councils →
It explores some of the major technology challenges facing local government and practical considerations for building a more resilient technology environment.
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