CANBERRA, Feb 27 (NNN-AAP) – The Australian government has announced an overhaul of its cyber security strategy, following a string of major data breaches.
Clare O’Neil, the Minister for Home Affairs, revealed the renewed strategy today, saying, the 2022 Optus and Medibank hacks exposed flaws in cyber laws.
A new national coordinator for cyber security will be appointed by the government, within the Department of Home Affairs, to lead the implementation of the strategy, with the government given more powers to intervene, following breaches.
Telecommunications giant, Optus revealed in Sept that, the data of up to 9.8 million customers could have been compromised, in one of the largest data breaches in Australian history.
One month later, health insurance provider, Medibank, disclosed that hackers had accessed the personal information of 9.7 million current and former customers.
In wake of the incidents, the Labour government, which won power in May, 2022, expressed frustration at the lack of an emergency response function.
O’Neil said today that, having the national coordinator in place at the time, would have made a significant difference.
“What we will have now is an individual in the public service who is going to coordinate the response across government, and make sure that not only are we deterring and preventing cyber-attacks, but Australians can get up off that quickly,” she told Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) radio.
“The other really important part of this person’s job will be to help manage cyber incidents in a proper, seamless strategic way across the Australian Government.”
The government hopes to appoint someone to the new role within a month, to develop a response plan.
