OAIC Finds Government Use of Messaging Apps Lacks Oversight

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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How can you protect your data from cyber incidents?

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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A tale of two intertwining records 

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.  

Say it three times, spoken unbroken: Privacy Reforms, Privacy Reforms, Privacy Reforms. 

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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2023-2030 Australian Cyber Security Strategy Snapshot

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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Digital ID Act passed

The Digital ID Bill passed Federal Parliament in May and will come into force in November 2024. Overall, the legislation aims to give Australians secure and effective ways in which to verify their identify for use in online transactions with government and business.