Australia – Page 4 – Cyber Law Watch

Q3 Notifiable breaches industry league results: Health first … lawyers a solid third!

Nov 08 2018

By Cameron Abbott, Keely O’Dowd and Colette Légeret

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) has released its third quarterly report of notifiable data breaches. This is the second OAIC report to be released covering a full quarter.

The report revealed that OAIC received 245 notifications of data breaches, marginally up from 242 notifications in the second quarterly report.

Some interesting figures from the OAIC’s report are as follows:

18% of notifications were from health service providers, 14% were from the finance sector; 14% were from the legal, accounting and management services sector; 7% were from the private education sector, and 5% were from the personal services sector;
85% of data breaches involved individual’s contact details, 45% involved financial details, 35% involved identity details, 22% involved health details, 22% involved tax file numbers, and 7% involved other types of personal information; and
57% of data breaches were due to malicious or criminal attack, with 37% due to human error, and 6% due to system faults, with cyber incidents, namely compromised credentials or phishing being the main the cause of

Of the 245 data breaches, 58 affected only one individual – however, 7 affected more than 10,000 individuals.

These figures are a clear reminder of the need to ensure that your business is equipped to deal with data breaches. To learn more about this, take a look at this 60-second video by Cameron Abbott. With professional services ranking a solid third, we’ll take some of our own advice too!

Australia identified as the link in a major Chinese hack!

Nov 01 2018

By Cameron Abbott and Jessica McIntosh

According to the US, China is trying to advance its aviation manufacturing capability using stolen information – and the latest is…. the information is being stolen out of Australia!

An Australian IT company dubbed “Company L” has been placed smack bang in the middle of a major hacking case in the US where US authorities have very publically and powerfully accused China of using compromised domain names to steal important aviation technology, alarmingly this has been happening for the large part of the last five years.

Open Government? – political misstep leads to privacy breach

Sep 07 2018

By Cameron Abbott and Keely O’Dowd

Navigating the political terrain and party politics can be a treacherous journey for any politician.

Recently, we have been captivated by a political misstep that involved the tabling of approximately 80,000 confidential and unredacted Cabinet documents of a former Government in the Victoria Parliament. In usual circumstances, these documents would have remained confidential for 30 years, unless the former Government consented to the release of the documents. However, in an attempt to seek an advantage in the political arena, the Victorian Government of the day decided to release these documents in Parliament and online.

242 data breaches reported in second quarter of notifiable data breach regime

Jul 31 2018

By Warwick Andersen, Rob Pulham and Colette Légeret

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) has released its second quarterly report of notifiable data breaches. This report is of particular significance as it, unlike the first “quarterly” report, covers a full quarter and therefore depicts a more accurate account of data breaches over a calendar quarter.

My Health Records – To opt-in, or to opt-out? That is the question

Jul 27 2018

By Cameron Abbott and Keely O’Dowd

This year all Australians will have a My Health Record created. A My Health Record will operate as a digital medical file that allows healthcare providers to upload health information about a patient. This information may include prescriptions, medical conditions and test results. A patient’s digital medical file will be stored in a national electronic database operated by Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA).

Ambulance chasing through data sharing? Health app accused of sharing personal health information with law firm

Jun 25 2018

By Cameron Abbott and Sarah Goegan

The idea of lawyers “ambulance chasing” seems to have taken on a new form. An investigation by the ABC has revealed how technology is being used to share health information with lawyers to generate work.

The ABC has revealed that HealthEngine, Australia’s largest online doctor’s appointment booking service, shared daily lists of prospective clients with law firm Slater and Gordon, based on personal medical information shared by users with the app.

Former MasterChef contestant falls victim to online fraud attack

Jun 25 2018

By Cameron Abbott and Keely O’Dowd

Last week, reports in the media revealed former MasterChef contestant, Dani Venn was the unfortunate victim of a conveyancing hacker attack.

Proposed anti-terror laws to give law enforcement access to personal data

Jun 12 2018

By Warwick Andersen, Rob Pulham and Sarah Goegan

Last week, the Australian Government announced that it would propose new anti-terror laws that force telecommunications and multinational tech companies to give law enforcement agencies access to encrypted data of suspected criminals and terrorists.

Cyber Security Minister Angus Taylor said the laws would give police, intelligence and security agencies the ability to bypass encryption on messaging (such as private messages sent on Whatsapp and Facebook), phone calls, photos, location and apps.

Study reveals massive cost of cybercrime for Asia Pacific businesses

Jun 01 2018

By Cameron Abbott and Sarah Goegan

We all know that cybersecurity incidents can cost your organisation a lot of money, but exactly how much? A report by Frost and Sullivan has found that losses from cyberattacks in the Asia Pacific region (APAC) could reach a staggering US$1.75 trillion, nearly 7 per cent of the region’s gross domestic product in 2017. As covered in our blog last week, the cost of cyber scams alone in Australia totalled $340 million AUD last year.

Australian Government legislates to protect critical national infrastructure

May 28 2018

By Cameron Abbott, Keely O’Dowd and Sarah Goegan

Protecting Australia’s critical infrastructure from threats is essential to Australia’s national security interests, community safety and the overall quality of life for Australians.

In March 2018, the Australian Parliament passed the Security of Critical Infrastructure Act 2018, which is due to commence on 11 July 2018. The Act imposes new obligations on operators and owners of “critical infrastructure assets” – Australia’s high risk major ports and electricity, water and gas utilities.

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