The Federal government is working to implement a string of tough new rules after the Optus data leak saga.
A string of new regulations are expected to be implemented by the Federal government following the Optus data leak saga.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers made the announcement on Thursday, saying the changes would aim to detect and mitigate the risks of cyber security frauds, scams and other malicious cyber activities.
The changes will allow telcos to share customers’ personal information with the likes of banks and government agencies during any future cyber attacks.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers announced changes to telco laws in Canberra on Thursday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage
“The proposed amendments come after extensive consultation with the financial regulators and other financial institutions on how we can best protect consumers following that Optus data breach,” Mr Chalmers said.
“They need to satisfy robust security requirements and protocols for data transfer and storage, and they need to ensure that the information that they get is destroyed when it’s no longer required.
“It’s important that we note here that for data security reasons, we won’t be disclosing the details of any financial institutions that receive the data from Optus, and this is based on strong advice from the regulators,” he said.
Changes will allow drivers licences, Medicare and passport numbers to be temporarily shared with financial services to implement enhanced monitoring for Optus customers.
This is aimed to increase fraud detection in the broader financial services sector through existing industry mechanisms to report fraudulent transactions.
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said the changes were aimed to protect Australians’ privacy. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage
However, the institutions must make certain undertakings before they can receive any data and will have to destroy the information when it is no longer in use.
Minister for Communications Michelle Rowland said the changes were designed to maintain the privacy and security of sensitive data.
“The proposed regulations have been carefully designed with strong privacy and security safeguards to ensure that only limited information can be made available for designated purposes,” she said.
The changes will be in place for the next 12 months.
More than 10 million Australians are believed to be impacted by Optus’ hack which took place earlier this month.