Foresiight partners with XSTRA to ensure secure and dependable cloud hosting for your business. Check out the below article from the XSTRA team to learn about the evolving threats to Aussie businesses, and how XSTRA are staying one step ahead.
Cyber threats facing Australian businesses
At XSTRA, we take your security seriously above all else. In today’s threat landscape, we are committed to being proactive in protecting your business, your teams, your applications, and your data. Cyber-attacks and data breaches have been on the rise even among the world’s biggest tech companies, underscoring that no one is immune. In recent months alone, high-profile incidents have affected industry giants – illustrating why robust security measures are essential for everyone. For example:
- Apple: A massive breach uncovered in 2025 exposed 16 billion stolen login credentials (usernames and passwords) for various services – notably including Apple accounts – in one of the largest data leaks in history. This staggering trove of data shows that even top tech platforms can have credentials leaked by cybercriminals.
- Qantas: In July 2025, Qantas Airways suffered a significant cyberattack on a third-party call centre, exposing personal data of up to 6 million customers (including names, emails, phone numbers, and dates of birth). Thankfully, no financial information was compromised, but this incident – one of the largest in Australia – prompted an apology from Qantas’ CEO and highlights the growing cyber threats facing all businesses.
- Facebook (Meta): A threat actor recently claimed to have scraped 1.2 billion Facebook user records, leaking personal details like names, contact info, locations, and more via an abused Facebook API. While Meta asserted this was old data, experts warn it could represent one of the largest Facebook data exposures to date, demonstrating how valuable user data is aggressively targeted.
- Google: Countless Google account credentials have appeared in recent credential leaks as well, underlining that even Google’s users are targets. In fact, Google has responded to these mega-breaches by urging users to move beyond traditional passwords (and even legacy 2FA) in favor of modern protections like passkeys. This push shows how critical stronger authentication is in light of recent leaks affecting Google and other services.
- Instagram: Late last year, hackers leaked a database of roughly 489 million Instagram user records on a dark web forum – including email addresses and location data – allegedly obtained through vulnerabilities in Instagram’s API. And in early 2025, another breach reportedly exposed 17 million Instagram users’ personal details. These incidents underscore persistent risks to social media data and the urgent need for better account security.
As these examples show, sophisticated cyber-attacks and data leaks are increasing across the board. What used to be considered optional “nice-to-have” security steps are now mandatory precautions for organizations of all sizes. One of the most effective protections is multi-factor authentication (MFA), which adds an extra verification step (usually via a code on your phone or device) before granting access. MFA has become a near-required safeguard in today’s environment – and XSTRA is committed to bringing the best of these protections to you.
Introducing XACCESS: Your New Multi-Factor Authentication Solution
To this end, XSTRA has spent the past 12 months testing new security add-ons with a small subset of clients. We are pleased to announce that this effort has produced a fully secure, world-leading MFA solution called XACCESS, now ready for rollout. XACCESS is a web-based multi-factor authentication service that we’ve crafted in-house to meet the needs of our clients’ modern cloud environments. We undertook thorough research and extensive testing of other MFA products (like Duo, LastPass Authenticator, Okta and WatchGuard AuthPoint) and found that traditional solutions did not adequately address the complexities of our virtual desktop platforms. In response, we developed XACCESS as a more tailored and advanced approach for our clients.
What makes XACCESS world-leading? XACCESS incorporates multiple innovative techniques to thwart unauthorized access to your systems, going far beyond basic two-factor apps. It is designed to be enterprise-grade yet seamless: the setup and daily use are so simple that the extra security “almost feels inconspicuous” to your users. Under the hood, however, XACCESS operates at both the operating system and network levels – layers of protection that typical MFA solutions do not reach – and provides comprehensive reporting for administrators. In short, XACCESS will fortify your account logins with state-of-the-art security without hindering your team’s productivity.
Rollout Plan and Next Steps
We will be rolling out XACCESS to all clients, across all XSTRA cloud-based products and services, with the goal of having every client using this MFA solution by the end of July 2025. At this stage, you do not need to take any action. Our team will contact you soon with detailed instructions on how to register for XACCESS and what steps your team will need to follow to become compliant with this important security mandate. The enrolment process will be straightforward – for example, users will simply go to our XACCESS web portal and enter their email and a one-time passcode from their mobile authenticator app to securely verify their identity. We will guide you through this process and answer any questions you or your staff may have.
Please rest assured that this initiative is all about protecting you. We understand that as a business owner, keeping your company’s data and systems safe is critical. By adopting XACCESS, you’ll be gaining an extra layer of defence against the kinds of threats that even the biggest companies are facing today. Your business is important to us, and we are taking every measure to safeguard it. XSTRA truly values the trust you place in us as your technology partner, and we are confident that XACCESS will significantly strengthen your security with minimal fuss.
Thank you for your cooperation and continued support. We are excited to bring you this enhancement as part of our mission to keep your organization secure, compliant, and protected in an evolving cyber landscape. If you have any immediate questions about XACCESS or our security efforts, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our team.
Sincerely,
The XSTRA Team
References: (for informational context on recent security incidents mentioned)
XSTRA XACCESS Documentation – XACCESS Overview and User Instructions XACCESS – PUBLIC – 1
XSTRA Internal Security Bulletin – “16 Billion Logins Stolen…” (June 2025)
The Economic Times – Qantas cyberattack exposes data of 6 million customers (July 2025)
Trend Micro News – Data Breach 2025: Facebook 1.2 Billion User Scrape (May 2025)
CyberPress – Instagram Data Breach Sparks Global Privacy Concerns (Jan 2025)
