Australia may soon introduce new laws that ban local companies from paying ransom to hackers if they fall victim to data breaches.
Speaking to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Insiders program on Nov. 13, Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil said the federal government was considering whether it was necessary to make ransom payments illegal following the high-profile cyber attacks on Medibank and Optus.
The minister said while short-term successes were needed in cyber security reform in the wake of the data breaches, the government was examining other long-term outcomes, including a ban on ransom payments.
“There are some really big policy questions that we’re going to need to think about and consult on, and we’re going to do that in the context of the cyber security strategy,” she said….