Australia’s first Cyber Security Minister used his maiden public address on Wednesday to acknowledge the “vulnerabilities” in the nation's defences to hackers, malicious states and cyber terrorism.
Dan Tehan, who was appointed to the role assisting the prime minister on cyber matters in July, delivered a speech to the National Press Club calling for improvements to the government’s digital security effort.
He described the catastrophic potential of cyber attacks, of broken ATMs, power faults, road accidents and a frozen economy and said that - if such an attack hit Australia - the public would be entitled to ask how the government left the community so exposed.
"We are naïve if we think that in Australia we are immune to any of these threats," he said.
His appointment follows the release in April of a new national cyber security strategy, along with more than $230 million in funding.
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Mr Tehan wants the country to "accelerate the implementation” of the cyber security strategy and "look to where we can further address our vulnerabilities”.
He also highlighted the importance of the bill currently before parliament that requires companies to immediately report instances of security breaches where customers’ personal data has been stolen or inadvertently released.
These notifications allow customers to change passwords and close accounts they fear may have been compromised, and prepare themselves for potential personal consequences when sensitive information has been released.
Huge data breaches have been reported in recent years, including from prominent multi-national companies Yahoo, Ebay and LinkedIn - but only in few instances have potentially affected customers been promptly alerted.
Many breaches have also occurred locally, including by the Red Cross Blood Service and restaurant booking company Menulog in the past year.
The bill will cover just six per cent of Australian business because of exemptions provided to small business.
