The idea of the ‘safe job’ is shifting, with new research from Shopify revealing that entrepreneurship is increasingly seen as a more financially secure alternative to traditional employment. 

The global survey of 2,000 business owners and senior decision-makers, including more than 400 from Australia, examined changing perceptions of entrepreneurship, financial security and career risk. It found that 40% of Australian business leaders see running a business as more financially secure than working a traditional job, compared to just 18% who say the same about traditional employment. This is despite most still associating traditional employment with long-term stability, with nearly three-quarters (73%) feeling this way. 

However, while entrepreneurship is associated with greater financial confidence, over two-thirds (69%) of business leaders say they would consider returning to traditional employment if economic conditions worsen, highlighting an ongoing tension between perceived opportunity and economic risk.

Shaun Broughton, Managing Director, APAC & Japan, at Shopify said: “Salary jobs have long been associated with financial security, but that definition is shifting, particularly as technology makes it easier than ever to start and run a business. For many business leaders, security is no longer about a steady salary or single employer, but about control, flexibility, and the ability to build something of their own.

At the same time, Shopify research shows that founders aren’t ignoring the risks of striking out on their own. In an evolving economic climate, the right support is critical to ensure entrepreneurship can continue to thrive. When founders have access to the right support, whether that’s skills training, trade assistance, or reduced red tape, they’re far more likely to start and sustain a business. That’s key to maintaining Australia’s global competitiveness and building a resilient entrepreneurial economy.”

Kelly Jamieson, Founder and Managing Director at Edible Bloom said: ”Traditional employment offers a predictable income, whereas business ownership offers founders agency, as you get to decide your risk appetite, pivot speed and ceiling. Whether owning a business is more secure than having a salary; that’s subjective, but I ‘d rather control my variables than hope someone else is. 

I started my own business out of aspiration. I wanted to build a legacy business in the creative space and lead on my own terms. Having this mindset matters in running a business. When you’re running toward something and not away from something, you’re never going to quit when it gets hard, as the hard parts become proof that you’re on the right path. Even if you fail, you’ll have zero regrets.”

Entrepreneurship is a deliberate choice, not a fallback

• For most founders, starting a business is about actively choosing a different way of working. Six in ten (61%) say they started their business to move toward something they wanted, with purpose and passion (21%), flexibility (20%) and control over decisions (16%) ranking as top motivations. Just 9% say they were moving away from something unstable.
• Among those who were motivated by instability, overwork and long hours (60%) is the leading challenge, the highest among all markets. Other key factors include limited flexibility (58%), lack of autonomy (45%), and job insecurity (40%).

Traditional employment no longer feels like the easier path

• A majority of Australian business owners (46%) say that traditional employment requires more effort than running their own business, a striking reversal of the conventional assumption that entrepreneurship is the harder route.
• Just 26% say business ownership requires more effort.

Advances in technology are helping make entrepreneurship more accessible

• More than two in five (43%) business leaders say starting a business is easier today than it was ten years ago, driven by ecommerce platforms (82%), social media and online marketing (74%), remote work infrastructure (67%) and AI and automation tools (60%). 
• However, building a business still comes with its hurdles. Cash flow (20%) ranks as the biggest challenge, followed by finding customers and generating consistent sales (18%).
  
  
  
  

Confidence and pride remains high even as entrepreneurs weigh trade-offs 

• The vast majority (91%) of business leaders feel proud of building their business, and 90% would choose to start a business again in 2026 if given the choice, the highest among all markets surveyed
• However, while 45% would choose to start their business in the same way, 46% would do it differently, suggesting that the road to success isn’t often straightforward.
• For business leaders, the pull of traditional employment is tied to stable income and benefits (48%), greater job security (34%) and predictable hours and clearer work boundaries (29%).

Economic pressure is reshaping resilience

• Many business leaders are becoming more resilient in the face of economic pressure. Over two-fifths (43%) say recent economic conditions have made business setbacks feel less serious, suggesting a growing ability to navigate ongoing volatility.
• However, structural barriers continue to limit growth. Seven in ten (70%) say they would have been more likely to start their business sooner if they had easier access to government support, such as reduced red tape, trade assistance or skills training.

With Australians reviewing their spending and everyday expenses increasingly under scrutiny, Boost Mobile is encouraging all Australians to check their mobile bill as a possible source of savings.  Boost Mobile has just been recognised as the Prepaid Provider of the Year by WeMoney, as it steps up as a simple, straightforward choice for consumers looking to get more value. It is doing this with Boost’d data inclusions across its range and a new six-month long-life prepaid plan, on the Full Telstra Prepaid Mobile Network.

Boost Mobile’s plans, updated today, will see all 7‑day and 28‑day plans with Boost’d data on the first three recharges and increased core data, ensuring customers have more than enough for streaming, social media, work and everyday use. Prices on Boost Mobile’s most popular plans remain unchanged, while the $13 and $26 prepaid plans will see a small price increase alongside added data. It has also launched a new 6-month long-life prepaid plan, designed for Australians who want better long-term value. In addition, Boost is adding international calls to its $365 12-month plan and increasing data inclusions across all roaming packs from $20, allowing consumers to roam with more data and stay connected with their loved ones.

“Australians are being forced to make tough choices right now, but staying connected shouldn’t be one of them. With people actively looking for ways to cut costs, mobile is one of the easiest wins. With Boost, you can switch in minutes, keep your number, and instantly start saving with access to the full Telstra Prepaid Mobile Network.” said Bobby Geldens, CEO of Boost Mobile Australia.

“We’ve built our range of plans around how Australians actually use their phones today, with high data usage, flexibility, and control over spending.”

“Boost is delivering more value with more data and keeping prices as sharp as possible.” said Geldens.

Boost Mobile’s approach to value and flexibility has been recognised by WeMoney in its annual 2026 WeMoney Telco & Broadband Awards, where the brand was awarded “Prepaid Provider of the Year” for the first time, and “Best for Flexibility – Prepaid Mobile Plan” for the second year in a row, with judges commending Boost on its balance of affordability, reliability, and service inclusions, and ability to deliver fast, consistent connectivity and superior service. Boost Mobile was also named a finalist across multiple additional categories, reinforcing its position as one of the most competitive prepaid providers in the Australian market.

These awards have been shared alongside new data from WeMoney around young Australians spending habits including that 45% of the WeMoney audience currently spend $100+/month on their telco and that 50% feel they are overpaying for telco services**. WeMoney data further showed that 82% of Australians are actively looking for ways to save on bills, including 72% who have flagged they are actively considering switching telco provider within the next 12 months. It’s no surprise then, that when asked what matters most to them when it comes to choosing a provider, 96% rated Price and Value, closely followed by Coverage and Speed (86%), both areas where Boost Mobile has a proven track record and commitment to delivering value.

“To be named Prepaid Provider of the Year and Best for Flexibility by WeMoney is a huge endorsement of what we are trying to do by giving Australians more control, more data and better value when they need it most. Consumers want straightforward, affordable mobile plans with excellent coverage and performance that work for them” said Geldens.

With a 25-year heritage as a challenger brand, Boost Mobile has built its reputation on standing up for consumers and delivering great value on the full Telstra Prepaid Network. In today’s economic climate, that role has never been more important.

Despite the clear savings available, many Australians still hesitate to change providers, often due to outdated perceptions that switching is complicated or time-consuming. Independent research previously conducted on behalf of Boost Mobile* last year shows that 46% of Australians have remained with their current mobile provider for over three years, while 7% have never even switched.

“There’s this old idea that switching telcos is painful, but that couldn’t be further from the truth today. With number porting and eSIM, you can move in minutes. No store visits, no waiting, no downtime. It’s fast, it’s seamless, and it puts control back in the hands of the customer.” said Geldens.

View all plan updates from Boost Mobile here- https://boost.com.au/planupdates

NEW 6-MONTH LONG EXPIRY “HARD WORKING” SIM

$180 SIM | 6 month expiry | Boost Mobile Website Link

The $180 prepaid SIM offers 160GB of data with unlimited standard national calls and texts along with international calls and texts. It’s an ideal choice for customers seeking 6 months of worry-free usage, comfortably covering typical needs such as streaming, browsing, and social media. Get connected to the Full Telstra Prepaid Mobile network.

160GB on new activations by 10 August 2026. 100GB from next recharge. All for use in Aus. View full information here- https://boost.com.au/shop/long-expiry/180-prepaid-sim 

World Password Day arrives this year at a turning point in Australia. The world’s largest technology platforms are pushing consumers and enterprises toward passwordless authentication. Passkeys, biometrics, and hardware tokens are replacing the credential model that has underpinned digital security for decades. But new independent research released today by Zoho suggests most Australian businesses are still struggling with the model they already have.

One in three Australian businesses suffered a confirmed cyberattack in the past year, according to data from Zoho’s State of Workforce Password Security Report, independently researched by Tigon Advisory Corp. across 3,322 verified professionals in nine regions.

The emergence of advanced AI models capable of identifying and exploiting critical system vulnerabilities faster than any human attacker has sharpened the focus on enterprise security. But while large organisations mobilise to respond, the same threats reach small and mid-sized businesses — which, as this research shows, are structurally less prepared to withstand them. According to Zoho, many of these vulnerabilities remain unpatched.

The data tells a sobering story at the organisational level:

• Seventy-four percent of ANZ businesses lack complete visibility over who has access to what within their own systems.
• Sixty-four percent have no Zero Trust strategy.
• Phishing and weak or reused passwords remain the top two threats, ranked by 68% and 60% of ANZ respondents, respectively.

The gap is widening as AI-powered tools compress attack timelines from weeks to hours. Phishing campaigns that once required manual effort can now be generated, personalised, and deployed at scale. Deepfake audio and video are being used to impersonate executives and bypass identity verification. The threat is no longer limited to stolen passwords; but extends to stolen identities.

The report’s sharpest finding concerns Australia’s small business community, which accounts for the overwhelming majority of the national economy. More than half of ANZ organisations under 250 employees have no dedicated security team, yet they face identical threats to large enterprises, often without the infrastructure, talent, or visibility to manage them. As the cybersecurity industry’s attention and investment concentrate on enterprise-grade solutions, the organisations most exposed are the ones least equipped to respond.

“Every security investment an organisation makes, from endpoint protection to zero trust architecture is built on top of credentials,” said Rakesh Prabhakar, Head of Australia and New Zealand, Zoho. “If the foundation is weak, everything above it is compromised. Across our 40,000-plus ANZ customers, the challenge we see most often is not that businesses don’t understand the risk smaller organisations in particular face due to lack of dedicated resources to act on it. This research confirms what we hear every day: the basics remain the biggest gap, and closing that gap is the single most effective thing any business can do right now.”

AI Agents and the expanding attack surface

The pressure on Australian organisations is compounded by a national shortage of cybersecurity professionals. Additionally, companies are sacking thousands of workers and replacing them with AI ‘agents’, thereby increasing the risk of cyber attacks. The burden falls disproportionately on small and mid-sized businesses, which lack the budgets and employer brand to compete for scarce talent, and are often left relying on IT generalists without specialist security expertise.

The research points to a disconnect that funding alone will not close. Seventy percent of ANZ organisations plan to increase their security budgets, yet the data suggests the constraint is architecture, visibility, and the foundational security behaviours that advanced tools are built on. Ninety percent of ANZ businesses believe AI will ultimately strengthen their security posture. But that future depends on getting the basics right first.

The password itself is evolving. Passkeys, biometric authentication, and hardware-based verification are gaining traction across consumer platforms and enterprise environments alike. But the transition will take years, and for the vast majority of Australian businesses, particularly those under 250 employees, passwords remain the primary line of defence. Even as passwordless adoption accelerates, credential management will remain the foundation on which every future security model depends.

World Password Day is a reminder that the most accessible security measure available to any organisation, of any size, remains one of the most effective: managing credentials properly

The Zoho Vault State of Workforce Password Security 2026 report is available here.

Synology today officially introduces AI Advisor, an intelligent assistant designed to simplify information discovery. By delivering accurate, localised technical guidance directly on Synology’s website, the AI Advisor ensures reliable insights while significantly reducing resolution time for users worldwide.

“AI Advisor integrates over a decade of Synology’s AI expertise,” said Steven Liang, Manager of the Generative AI Application Group at Synology. “With an agent-as-tool design, dynamic knowledge injection, context optimisation, and a continuous evaluation pipeline, AI Advisor delivers accurate, high-quality responses and continuously refines itself. These innovations will extend across Synology product lineup, advancing our vision of secure, intuitive solutions.”

Self-hosted ecosystem to ensure AI sovereignty

Prioritising customer privacy, the AI Advisor utilises a self-hosted LLM that operates entirely independent of third-party AI providers, ensuring no context is shared externally. Moving toward complete data sovereignty, the service will transition to a dedicated Synology infrastructure later in 2026, guaranteeing 100% data residency and keeping all user interactions within a secure, sovereign ecosystem.

Streamlined navigation from inquiry to implementation

AI Advisor integrates with Synology’s NAS Selector and NVR Selector tools. Users are guided through preliminary sizing and product recommendation workflows tailored to their deployment needs, enabling faster and more informed early-stage purchasing decisions. By understanding the intent and context of each query, the Advisor further streamlines the journey by directing users to relevant support articles, downloads, or configuration guides to ensure a fast transition from question to solution.

AI Advisor Accessibility and Availability

Alongside the introduction of AI Advisor, this website update brings support for global web accessibility standards, ensuring an inclusive and user-friendly experience for audiences worldwide.

The Synology Website AI Advisor is available now on Synology’s official website. To learn more about Synology’s AI-driven services and experience the new Advisor, visit Synology’s official website. www.synology.com

 Commerce an open, intelligent ecosystem of technology solutions and the parent company of BigCommerce, Feedonomics and Makeswift, has announced a broad set of product innovations unveiled at Commerce Live 2026, spanning core platform advancements, new growth capabilities and emerging agentic commerce experiences.

The announcements highlight how Commerce is evolving its platform to help merchants move faster, scale across channels and adapt to new forms of commerce driven by AI.

“Commerce is giving merchants the infrastructure to move faster, the flexibility to handle complexity and the ability to succeed in new commerce channels as they emerge,” said Vipul Shah, chief product officer at Commerce. “These new improvements reflect a stronger platform and new offerings and capabilities designed to help merchants turn innovation into measurable growth.”

Advancing Core Commerce Capabilities Across the Platform

Commerce introduced a range of enhancements across the BigCommerce platform designed to improve performance, flexibility and global scalability.

Key updates include:

• Multi-language capabilities: Expanded global selling support with translation APIs, localised URLs and sitemaps, and native translation management tools
• Advanced promotions management: New features including promotion banners, multi-coupon stacking, bulk coupon generation and shipping method discounts
• Improved catalogue flexibility: Removal of unique product naming requirements to simplify catalogue management
• Advanced catalog filtering and saved views: New precision filtering by category, inventory and more lets merchants instantly surface the products that need attention and save those views for faster access every time
• Faster checkout performance: Checkout load times reduced by one full second, delivering a measurable increase in conversion rates
• Backorder support: New controls enabling merchants to continue selling out-of-stock items with SKU-level limits

These enhancements are designed to directly impact conversion, operational efficiency and international growth for merchants.

Enabling Growth Through Storefront, B2B and Channel Innovation

Building on the platform advancements, Commerce introduced new capabilities that help merchants differentiate and scale.

Modern storefront experiences
Commerce continues to evolve its storefront capabilities with Makeswift on Stencil (now in beta), enabling merchants to adopt modern, flexible frontend experiences while maintaining compatibility with existing implementations.

Native Hosting for Catalyst: Coming to open beta this summer, Native Hosting for Catalyst provides production-ready, performant hosting on Cloudflare, managed through a simple CLI interface. It includes log retention and custom domain support –  with no additional cost – making it easier than ever for merchants to deploy and manage a modern headless storefront.

Makeswift batch translation: After rolling out AI translations for Makeswift and gathering merchant feedback, Commerce is now introducing batch translation jobs, enabling teams to localise an entire site or launch a new locale at scale, not one page at a time. Merchants retain full review and approval control before anything goes live.

Expanded B2B capabilities
Commerce introduced new tools purpose-built for complex B2B operations, including AI-driven purchase order automation, event-driven webhooks and advanced pricing logic through cascading price lists.

“B2B commerce is one of our core strengths,” said Lance Owide, vice president of B2B product at Commerce. “From automating purchase orders to simplifying complex pricing models, we’re helping manufacturers and distributors reduce operational friction and scale more efficiently, while continuing to support the depth and complexity their businesses require.”

“Automating purchase orders and improving how we manage pricing has been a significant unlock for our business,” said Joe Sharplin, head of ecommerce at AS Colour. “We’re reducing manual work, minimising errors and delivering a more seamless buying experience for our customers.”

As part of its roadmap, Commerce is also unifying its B2B and B2C platform experiences, making it simpler for merchants who sell to both businesses and consumers to manage everything from a single control panel and build on one storefront API layer.

Payments and monetisation infrastructure
Commerce also highlighted continued innovation in payments, including BigCommerce Payments built with PayPal, expanded Stripe integrations and support for a growing set of local and alternative payment methods – all designed to reduce friction and improve conversion.

Feedonomics Surface expansion
Feedonomics Surface, Commerce’s self-service feed management solution, is now expanding channel support with availability across Microsoft Ads, TikTok and Pinterest, in addition to Google and Meta. The platform enables merchants to automatically sync, optimise and distribute product data across channels from a single interface.

Early adoption has already resulted in millions of products synced and measurable increases in gross merchandise value as merchants expand into new acquisition channels. Existing BigCommerce small businesses using Surface saw approximately 24% points greater year-over-year gross merchandise value growth in November 2025 compared to their peers.

Introducing Agentic Commerce Capabilities

Commerce also introduced a new set of capabilities designed to support the ongoing shift toward agent-driven shopping and buying, where AI systems increasingly participate in product discovery, decision-making and transactions.

These capabilities include:

• Enriched, agent-ready product data through Feedonomics
• Distribution across AI-driven discovery surfaces including ChatGPT, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Perplexity, PayPal, and Stripe
• Agent-enabled checkout experiences that allow transactions to occur while merchants retain control of the customer relationship
• Conversational search and AI-assisted shopping experiences on the merchant’s own storefront 
• AI-powered merchant assistant – BigCommerce Companion – supports day-to-day operations

“Commerce as an industry is entering a phase where the distance between discovery and transaction is shrinking rapidly,” said Sharon Gee, senior vice president of product for AI at Commerce. “Our focus is on making sure merchants can reap the benefits of agentic commerce while maintaining control of their data, their customers and their operations.”

Built for What’s Next

The announcements at Commerce Live 2026 reflect a broader strategy: combining flexible infrastructure, connected data and intelligent automation to help merchants grow across today’s channels while preparing for what comes next.

To learn more about Commerce’s product upgrades, visit commerce.com/momentum.

For many small to medium businesses (SMB), the browser has quietly become the place where work happens. Staff use it to access email, accounting software, collaboration tools and, increasingly, AI tools. In fact, as much as 85% of daily work happens in the beloved browser.

That convenience has helped SMBs move faster, reduce overheads and stay flexible. But security hasn’t kept pace. Most browsers were never designed to manage sensitive business operations, control data exposure or govern how employees use AI tools. Yet they now sit at the centre of all three. And often without the visibility or controls organisations need.

This matters because attackers have adapted. They no longer need to break through a company’s infrastructure if they can steal a password, hijack a session or trick an employee into clicking the wrong link. According to Palo Alto Networks’ Unit 42 2026 Global Incident Response Report, nearly half (48%) of the incident response cases now involve browser-based activity. 

For SMBs with limited IT resources, the impact can be significant: lost data, business disruption, reputational damage and real financial cost.

The good news is that improving security does not have to mean adding complexity. It starts with recognising that the browser is now the front door to the business and taking a few practical steps to protect it.

Treat the browser like a business-critical tool 

Small businesses don’t need to add more security tools for the sake of it. But they do need to pay close attention to the tool their people use most. If staff are accessing payroll, finance systems, customer data and AI tools through the browser, then browser activity needs more visibility and control.

Start with the basics. Know which business-critical apps staff are using, who can access them, and what information can be copied, downloaded or shared. If you cannot answer those questions, there is a good chance your security settings have not kept up with how work is actually happening.

Tighten access to the apps your team uses every day

For attackers, it is often easier to misuse a legitimate login than break into a network. That makes identity and access one of the most important areas for small businesses to get right.

At the same time, identity has become one of the most reliable ways for attackers to gain access. The techniques are familiar, but increasingly effective. Phishing captures credentials. Malicious links and downloads compromise sessions. In some cases, simply visiting a compromised page is enough.

The underlying issue is visibility. Today, the browser is the primary interface to cloud applications and AI tools, yet many organisations have limited visibility into browser activity and rely on default browser protections. That means spotting risky browser behaviour, such as unusual logins, suspicious downloads or staff entering sensitive information into unapproved tools, can easily be missed.

Practical steps can go a long way: turn on multi-factor authentication, limit admin access, review which employees can use which apps, and remove access quickly when roles change.

Put guard rails around AI and data sharing 

AI tools are now part of everyday work for many small businesses. Used well, they can save time and boost productivity. Used carelessly, they can expose sensitive business or customer information.

As AI tools become part of everyday workflows, the browser is no longer just where employees access information. It is also where sensitive business data can be entered, shared and exposed in seconds. 

That doesn’t mean banning AI tools. It means setting clear guardrails. Make sure staff know which tools are approved, what information should never be pasted into public AI tools, and when human oversight is needed. For example, an employee might paste customer details, financial information or plans for a new product into a public AI tool to save time. Without the right safeguards, that information can leave the business with little visibility or control.

Many traditional security measures were not designed for how people use browser-based AI tools today. That means businesses can have protections in place elsewhere, while still missing risks at the point where employees actually interact with data.

For small businesses, the challenge is not to build enterprise-level security from scratch. It is to make smarter decisions about the tools employees already use every day.

Businesses that focus on visibility, stronger access controls and clearer rules around data and AI use will be in a better position to grow with confidence. The goal is not to slow people down. It is to make secure work the easiest way to work.

Contributed by Raj Sharma, Cyber Strategist, Australia & New Zealand, Palo Alto Networks