Amendments to the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act) increased the enforcement powers of the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), introducing new civil penalty tiers and giving the OAIC the ability to issue infringement notices for minor breaches. This marks the beginning of a stronger regulatory environment for organisations that do not comply …
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Australian Government Agencies have been urged by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) to strengthen their policies on messaging apps like Signal, WhatsApp, Telegram and Facebook messenger. On 19 March 2025 the OAIC published ‘Messaging apps: a report on Australian Government agency practices and policies’ highlighting significant gaps in the governance of messaging …
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In the 2023-24 financial year, Australia saw nearly 94,000 reports of cybercrime submitted to the Australian Cyber Security Centre. This was a 23% increase compared to the previous year. The Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) received over 36,700 calls to its Australian Cybersecurity Hotline, an increase of 12% from the previous financial year. The ASD also …
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On 13 March 2025, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) announced they had launched legal proceedings against an investment firm, FIIG Securities Limited (FIIG).
The CEO of Services Australia (Agency) has recently been found by the Australian Privacy Commissioner (Commissioner) to have interfered with a customer’s privacy after a series of issues involving the Agency intertwining customer records.
It’s the worst nightmare of every business: you get a call from your IT provider: there’s been suspicious activity on your network. It appears that hundreds or thousands of client records were accessible to a third party for several hours. They are still trying to work out what was accessed, and if anything was exfiltrated. …
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13/09/2024 Today the long awaited first tranche of amendments to the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Privacy Act) entered parliament. The Privacy and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2024 (Bill) was introduced and read for a first time today in the House of Representatives. In the Explanatory Memorandum to the Bill, the Attorney-General conceded that to date, …
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On 17 February 2023, the Security of Critical Infrastructure (Critical infrastructure risk management program) Rules (CIRMP Rules) were registered under the SOCI Act and set out mandatory requirements for responsible entities.
On 22 November 2023, the Australian Government released the 2023-2030 Australian Cyber Security Strategy (the Strategy). The goal of the strategy is for Australia to become a world leader in cyber security by 2030, and to build stronger cyber defences to enable our citizens and businesses to prosper, and to build cyber resilience so we can …
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In the landscape of Australian Business, government and not-for-profit, the strategic management of data has become increasingly vital. However, as we see time and time again in data breaches, data can also pose a significant risk to organisations if not properly managed.