Security News
Australia has been the victim of damaging cyberattacks in the latter half of this year, with high-profile incidents impacting businesses across critical sectors such as telecoms, healthcare, and government. The Australian Cyber Security Centre recently confirmed what the media has already been reporting, releasing data that showed cyber-attacks have risen 13% YoY. What makes Australia such an attractive target? And what does this shift mean for the future of other countries around the world?
Japan is also revising its cyber security strategy according to Nikkei. Japan's Aerospace Exploration Agency announced last week it has started conceptualizing a satellite refueling service with private Japanese orbital debris removal company, Astroscale.
The Australian Federal Police have arrested four suspected members of a financial investment scam syndicate estimated to have stolen $100 million from victims worldwide. AFP says the investment scam group manipulated legitimate electronic trading platforms in combination with "Pig butchering."
Australian health insurance provider Medibank has confirmed that another batch of the customer data stolen in the recent breach has been leaked. Medibank is making an effort to minimize the bad news, somewhat, by saying that much the data leaked is incomplete and hard to understand.
The Australian parliament has approved a bill to amend the country's privacy legislation, significantly increasing the maximum penalties to AU$50 million for companies and data controllers who suffered large-scale data breaches. Previously, the penalty for severe data exposures was AU$2.22 million, considered wholly inadequate to incentivize companies to improve their data security mechanisms.
The Australian government has passed a bill that markedly increases the penalty for companies suffering from serious or repeated data breaches. To that end, the maximum fines have been bumped up from the current AU$2.22 million to AU$50 million, 30% of an entity's adjusted turnover in the relevant period, or three times the value of any benefit obtained through the misuse of information, whichever is greater.
The Australian government has passed a bill that markedly increases the penalty for companies suffering from serious or repeated data breaches. To that end, the maximum fines have been bumped up from the current AU$2.22 million to AU$50 million, 30% of an entity's adjusted turnover in the relevant period, or three times the value of any benefit obtained through the misuse of information, whichever is greater.
Australia's government has declared the nation is planning to go on the offensive against international cyber crooks following recent high-profile attacks on local health insurer Medibank and telco Optus. Minister for Home Affairs and Cyber Security Clare O'Neil said the operation will "Scour the world, hunt down the criminal syndicates and gangs who are targeting Australia in cyber-attacks, and disrupt their efforts."
The Australian Federal Police has pointed to Russia as the location of the attackers who breached local health insurer Medibank, accessed almost ten million customer records, and in recent days dumped some customer data onto the dark web. The release of customer data - some it containing intimate details of health services customers accessed using their insurance - came after Medibank refused to pay a ransom to secure the data on grounds that doing so would not guarantee customers' safety.
After suffering two large, and embarrassing, data breaches in recent weeks, the Australian government increased the fine for serious data breaches from $2.2 million to a minimum of $50 million. The problem is one of incentives, and Australia has now increased the incentive for companies to secure the personal data or their users and customers.