As a result of the Optus data breach, the federal government has established emergency legislation to aid banks and other organisations in protecting their consumers.
The rules that were just released will be in effect for a year and will be incorporated into the Telecommuncations Regulations of 2021.
The government will change regulations to enable telecommunications companies to “better coordinate with financial institutions, the Commonwealth, and states and territories, to detect and mitigate the risks of cyber security incidents, frauds, scams, and other malicious cyber activities,” as announced by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Communications Minister Michelle Rowland today.
In addition, Rowland stated during today’s press conference that the government intended to expedite a review of the Privacy Act but made no time commitment.
Angelene Falk, commissioner for information and privacy at the Department of Commerce, said earlier this week that she has “recommended to government that there should be a positive obligation on all entities to handle data in a fair and reasonable way and that shifts the obligation on individuals having to navigate these privacy policies, and it means that they can rely on the fact that the entity is actually dealing with their information in a way that they would expect.”
Falk said that she thought the Privacy Act’s provision for companies with annual revenues under $3.1 million was no longer relevant.
Wherever it may be, the security of private citizen data must be a top concern.
The time has come for small businesses to be subject to the Privacy Act, and we would support measures to make sure they can completely comply, including more time for education and compliance, according to Simon Bush, CEO of the AIIA.
The AIIA said that domestic data breach policies should be in line with European GDPR requirements.
