Our website can't be accessed overseas

Cyber attacks are at record levels within the real estate industry, with everything from DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks to ransomware attacks and phishing attacks and more. 

Some cyber insurers have also refused to offer some cyber insurance products anymore due to the sheer volume of claims being made by companies throughout the country. The Optus and Medibank hacks have certainly drawn this into the national discussion.

Given we only protect your website, our security team use a range of measures to detect and block threats before they impact our client's websites and we're proud to be a part of Cloudflare's partner network which gives us access to more advanced security tools than most. 

From time to time, our security team will block an entire country (never Australia of course) due to attackers deploying 'botnet' style attacks with thousands of servers all focusing their efforts on Australian businesses. In this sort of attack, it's not possible to block individual IP addresses as there are literally thousands of them so an entire country needs to be blocked until it's safe to allow 'filtered' access to visitors from that country. Some countries are permanently blocked due to the persistent threat posed i.e. Russia, Ukraine, China, Brazil and some others.

Currently, the 'default' allowed list for your website includes the following countries (all Asia-pacific countries plus a few extras) where you commonly see visitors: 

• Our commitment to cyber security: https://www.stepps.com.au/real-estate-cyber-security/
• Cloudflare Radar - https://radar.cloudflare.com/
• Why Cyber Attackers Are Targeting Real Estate Agents (And How To Protect Yourself) - https://www.stepps.com.au/cyber-security/cyber-attacks-on-the-rise/
• Small Business Cyber Security Guide - https://www.cyber.gov.au/acsc/view-all-content/publications/small-business-cyber-security-guide