If your practice hasn’t completed a cyber security audit recently, now is the time to act.
According to the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), more than 1,200 cyber incidents were reported across Australia in 2024–25, alongside over 1,700 proactive alerts about potentially malicious activity. Health care is one of the most frequently targeted sectors.
Cyber security IS patient safety
Cyber security is often seen as an IT responsibility, but in health care it’s fundamentally about patient safety and trust. A data breach or systems outage can disrupt care, delay communication, and compromise sensitive information, all of which have real-world impacts on patients and staff.
For many smaller or regional practices, competing priorities can make it challenging to focus on cyber security. Yet even small, proactive steps such as reviewing password practices, ensuring reliable data backups, and training staff to recognise phishing, can make a significant difference.
Conducting a cyber-security audit now is essential
Completing a cyber security audit is one of the most effective steps your organisation can take. It helps identify vulnerabilities, ensure compliance with national standards, and demonstrate your commitment to safeguarding patient data. It’s also an opportunity to engage your team – empowering staff to understand their role in protecting digital systems.
A well-planned audit will:
- Reveal vulnerabilities — A formal audit will map your IT systems, workflows, data-flows and help you identify weak links (e.g. outdated software, weak passwords, insufficient training).
- Fulfil your standard-of-care and accreditation obligations — By examining cyber-security you are meeting your obligations under the RACGP Standards for General Practice (5th edition), criterion C6.4 and broader health sector frameworks.
- Demonstrate to funders, auditors and patients your proactive stance — For services like yours, focused on healthy living, community outreach and equity, demonstrating resilience adds credibility.
- Mitigate risk of disruption — With cyber threats rising (and the next breach may cost millions in downtime, reputational harm and remediation) aligning your organisation ahead of time is far more cost-effective than reacting.
- Embed culture change — An audit is more than a snapshot: it opens the door to staff training, policy review, incident-response planning and ongoing governance.
Bay Centre Medical in Byron Bay recently took a proactive step by undergoing a third-party assessment.
The practice manager explained:
“We decided to participate in the assessment to stay proactive, secure, and prepared. The cyber audit had a positive impact at Bay Centre Medical, strengthening our overall security, ensured regulatory compliance, minimized risks, and instilled a proactive security culture.”
View Healthy North Coast’s quality improvement, Primacy Care Impact page Conduct an assessment of Cyber Security and IT controls to see how to get started.
Building a culture of cyber safety
Cyber security isn’t a one-off project, it’s an ongoing commitment to patient safety and organisational resilience. The most secure healthcare providers embed cyber safety into their everyday operations: reviewing access, updating systems, testing backups, and refreshing staff training regularly.
Other resources
- RACGP – Cyber Security in General Practice
- RACGP – Information security in general practice
- Essential Eight explained | Cyber.gov.au
- ACSC Cyber Security Checklist for small businesses
- Exercise in a Box | Cyber.gov.au
- Western NSW PHN digital health podcast – “Cybersecurity essentials for primary care with Prof. Neil Curtis”
