Cyber attacks costing small businesses $56,600: Bendigo banks on security education as scam wave grows

Australia is now logging 232 cyber attacks every day, one every six minutes, and the average reported hit is costing small businesses $56,600, enough to force them to close, according to 2025 data cited by Bendigo Bank. In response, Bendigo’s major financial institution, its council and local educators are pouring resources into cybersecurity awareness programs that go well beyond a routine email alert.

The City of Greater Bendigo is hosting four free Cyber Resilience sessions led by IDCARE Australia. The workshops target older residents in particular, teaching them to identify phone scams, protect their devices and manage passwords securely. The sessions are part of a broader municipal push to close the digital divide, a city that already operates a 100-gigabit broadband network under the '100 Gig Bendigo' initiative is now trying to make sure residents can safely use that speed.

Bank staff and customers get hands-on scam training

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank has revamped its mandatory cybersecurity awareness training for all staff. The overhauled program covers data risk management, email and social media safety, and phishing drill recognition, a mandatory requirement for every employee. On the customer side, more than 1,000 people have attended the bank’s 'Banking Safely Online' face-to-face education program since it launched in September 2023. The sessions teach participants how to outsmart scammers in real-world scenarios.

The bank has also expanded its online safety education into secondary schools. Students are learning to spot financial fraud, avoid remote access scams and enable multi-factor authentication. The school program reflects a recognition that younger Australians, digital natives though they may be, are vulnerable to sophisticated financial scams that bypass traditional warning signs.

Small businesses are the front line, and the most exposed

The $56,600 average cost per reported cyber incident is more than enough to wipe out a small retailer’s annual profit margin. For Bendigo’s growing tech sector, anchored by the Deloitte Australia Digital Operations Centre at La Trobe University, which is expected to create up to 200 jobs, the threat is existential. Many of the small software and digital content firms that grew 9.5 percent between 2011 and 2016 lack the resources to recover from a ransomware attack or a data breach.

Bendigo-founded AI firm Ligantic, now a Gold Partner for Be.Bendigo, is helping Central Victorian businesses harness AI to compete digitally. But even AI tools carry security risks if users don’t know how to deploy them safely.

The council-run IDCARE sessions and the bank’s school program are designed to close that gap. City leaders are betting that investment in awareness, not just technology, is the long-term play. With attacks arriving every six minutes, they have little choice.