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The Albanese government recently announced that it is in the works on developing an improved Cyber Security Act. The improvement aims to address deficiencies of the existing Security of Critical Infrastructure Act, which was branded ‘bloody useless.’

Julian Bajkowski, a senior journalist for The Mandarin, noted that the new Cyber Security Act is “part of a crackdown on lax corporate information security standards and data hoarding.” According to Bajkowski, home affairs minister Clare O’Neil expressed that she is looking into developing a new National Office of Cyber Security. She is also currently finding the right person to lead the new branch.

According to the minister, the senior official to be chosen will be responsible for ‘adding spine’ to the initiative by providing strategy and structure. The official should ensure that the billions of dollars invested in the initiative should be spent strategically.

Another critical function the new official will take on is to help manage cyber incidents properly, seamlessly, and strategically across all government offices involved.

O’Neil’s office also recently released a discussion paper that recommends the options to harmonise different cyber laws and regulations across different security and regulatory agencies. The report also includes a new Cyber Security Act reflecting the heavy advisory from former Telstra head Andy Penn, former air force chief Mel Hupfeld, and Cyber Security Cooperative Research Centre head Rachel Falk.

Richard Chirgwin, a veteran tech journalist for IT News, noted that “the strategy discussion paper proposes expanding the Security of Critical Infrastructure Act (SoCI) to cover customer data and systems. This could mean a lot more companies must answer to SoCI, including those standing up customer data platforms (CDPs) and other systems used in marketing.”

The paper also explores the government’s role concerning policy and practical security settings, as well as the cooperation between private companies and the government.

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