Australia To Increase Penalties For Data Breaches Following Cyber Attacks

Australia will introduce laws to parliament to increase penalties for companies subject to major data breaches.

Attorney General Mark Dreyfus said Australia will submit laws to Parliament to increase penalties for companies vulnerable to major data breaches, after high-profile cyber attacks that hit millions of Australians in recent weeks.

Australia's telecom, financial and government sectors have been on high alert since Singtel-owned Optus, the country's second-largest -

The largest telecommunications company, revealed on September 22, a hack that saw the theft of personal data from up to 10 million accounts.

This attack was followed this month by a data breach at health insurance company Medibank Private, which covers one-sixth of Australians, which led to the theft of the personal information of 100 customers,

Including diagnostics and medical procedures, as part of the theft of 200 gigabytes of data.

In an official statement released on Saturday, Dreyfus said the government will move next week to "significantly toughen penalties for repeated or serious breaches of privacy" with amendments to privacy laws.

The proposed changes would raise the maximum penalties for serious or repeated privacy breaches from A$2.22 million (1.

$4 million) to A$50 million greater, three times the value of the benefit obtained through the misuse of information, or 30% of sales in the relevant period, he said.

The attorney general said that when Australians were asked to hand over personal data to companies, they had a right to expect it to be protected.

“Serious breaches of privacy in recent weeks have demonstrated that existing safeguards are inadequate,” Dreyfus said. “It is not enough to see a penalty for a major data breach as the cost of doing business.”

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"We need better laws to regulate how companies manage the vast amount of data they collect, and greater penalties to incentivize better behaviour."

The announcement comes after the government earlier this month revealed plans to overhaul consumer privacy rules that would help facilitate targeted data sharing between telcos and banks in the wake of the Optus breach.

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