According to a government analysis, cyberattacks in Australia increased four-fold from the previous year, with more than half of the attacks being directed at specific people for fraud and theft.
The Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) estimates that 76,000 cybercrime complaints were filed during the most recent fiscal year, 95 of which involved attacks on critical infrastructure.
The government office also reported that complaints about cybercrime increased by 13% from the previous year. According to the report, the attacks were primarily carried out by criminals and state-sponsored organizations, particularly those funded by the governments of Iran, Russia, and China.
“It’s not just about the frauds or the texts that you or I might receive, but real issues around the security of our country going forward,” Cybersecurity Minister Clare O’Neil told state-owned Australian Broadcasting Company on Friday about the report, reports Reuters news agency.
“It is a national security focus of the government.”
There have been major attacks at Medibank and Optus
The report was released in the wake of significant data breaches at the insurance business Medibank and telecoms provider Optus, both of which exposed the private information of millions of Australians.
However, according to government statistics, Optus and Medibank were responsible for failing to provide necessary software updates, which made it simple to hack. The Australian government recently decided to introduce laws to raise the maximum punishment for persistent “privacy breach” offenses.
From the current $1.4 million, they intend to raise the penalty amount to $32 million, which will be equal to either 30% of the relevant period’s revenue or three times the value of any benefits acquired from the misuse of information, whichever is greater.
“Significant privacy breaches in recent weeks have shown that the existing safeguards are inadequate. It’s not enough for a penalty for a major data breach to be seen as the cost of doing business,” said Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus.
“We need better laws to regulate how companies manage the huge amount of data they collect, and bigger penalties to incentivize better behavior,” he added
