Next week, Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil is expected to release the nation’s new seven-year cybersecurity strategy. The release of the plan will follow the hacks on Optus and Medibank last year, the Optus outage last week and the attack on port operator DP World last Friday.
It will also follow the recall by Defence this week of the inaugural coordinator for cybersecurity, Air Marshal Darren Goldie — who was only appointed in July — over a complaint concerning alleged past behaviour in the military.
Major features of the new plan will include making the risk management framework for telecommunications companies subject to the Security of Critical Infrastructure Act and the introduction of a mandatory no-fault reporting system for the payment of ransoms to hackers.
Capital Brief can also reveal another significant announcement.
This year, the Department of Home Affairs along with industry conducted three simulated cyber attacks — on financial services and markets in May, the aviation sector in June and the telecommunications sector in September — to test the nation’s cyber response plans. They included a simulated response to a cyberattack on Sydney Airport and a hack on critical systems within the telecommunications sector.
