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NEWS CASUAL LABOUR TO PLAY KEY ROLE POST-COVID The use of casual labour in Australia continues to accelerate, according to employment agency APG Workforce, and will play a key role in the nation’s post-COVID recovery workforce. “The workforce in Australia is estimated at being just under 13 million, a fourth of which is casual labour, and it’s increasing faster than ever,” APG Workforce General Manager Dhaval Trivedi said. “Therefore, the role that casual labour will play in the post- COVID era is not only significant, but decisive.” Mr Trivedi added: “Past global experiences have proved that casual or agency workforce has played a significant role in helping economies recover from economic crisis, whether it was the recession in the early 90s or the GFC in 2007-08. “The recession of the early 90s brought about a U-shaped dip in job vacancies. The GFC brought a 50 per cent cut in job vacancies in a single quarter, but in a V-shaped recovery, it led to the back-to-back recovery in the three following quarters. “Importantly, businesses using agency workforce recorded growth that was significantly higher than the rest. Much as COVID has brought Australia, like the rest of the world, to its knees, recovery should be a V-shaped one, with the casual workforce once again at the forefront.” Mr Trivedi says the major advantage that an agency workforce has over a permanent workforce is flexibility. “The uncertainty and lack of confidence that the pandemic will leave behind will drive business towards flexible labour solutions,” he said. “Businesses will need labour of the quantity it needs, of the quality it needs, for the time it needs, and of the skill sets it needs. “With an unprecedented mix of local economic uncertainty, health susceptibility and global volatility, businesses will want flexible labour solutions. The market is likely to soon experience a structural change and need a massive reallocation of labour. All of this will demand flexibility.” RETAIL AMONG TOP FOUR CYBERATTACK TARGETS Retail is one of the most targeted industries for hackers attempting to damage a computer network or system, according to endpoint security company VMware Carbon Black. The company has released the fifth instalment of its semi-annual ‘Global Incident Response Threat Report’, which gives a picture of today’s evolving cyberattack threat landscape, considering the continued impact COVID-19 has had on the cyber security of organisations and its networks. Its survey of security professionals indicates that 51 per cent of cyberattacks in the 90 days before the study had been on the financial sector, followed by healthcare (35 per cent), professional services (35 per cent), and retail (31 per cent). This, says VMware Carbon Black, correlates with the finding that 59 per cent of those surveyed said attackers’ end goal was financial gain. According to the report, security teams are struggling to keep up. Fifty-three per cent of IR professionals surveyed encountered or observed an increase in cyberattacks exploiting COVID-19. They pointed to remote access inefficiencies (52 per cent), VPN vulnerabilities (45 per cent) and staff shortages (36 per cent) as the “most daunting” endpoint security challenges in this regard. “As the initial shock of COVID-19 subsides,” VMware Carbon Black said, “we should expect organisations to firm up their defences against new vulnerabilities – whether it’s addressing staff shortages, integrating endpoint technologies, aligning IT and security teams or adapting networks and employees to remote work.” To “fight back”, the company advises security teams to: • Gain better visibility into your system’s endpoints. • Establish digital distancing practices. • Enable real-time updates, policies, and configurations across the network. • Remember to communicate about new risk factors protocols and security resources. • Enhance collaboration between IT and security teams – and make IT teams more cybersecurity savvy. 16 RETAIL WORLD AUG, 2020