New legislation that provides the government greater powers to combat cyberattacks passed the Australian Senate with the support of the opposition on Monday. The amendment to the Security of Critical Infrastructure Act 2018 allows the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) to step in and take over operating systems of certain industries in the event of a cyberattack. The number of sectors defined as critical infrastructure was also expanded from 4 to 11, including health care and medical, financial services, data storage and processing, defence, energy, and higher education. These sectors will now be required to report all cyber incidents to the ASD. While “government assistance,” where the government will take over systems, will be available to the industries “as a last resort and subject to appropriate limitations.” Senator Jim Molan, a former Army major general, told the Senate that not one country has yet to apply their full cyber resources into …