December 5, 2022
Regulation: Australia Passed Bills with Tougher Penalties for Serious Data Breaches
The Australian government passed a new stringent law that significantly increases the penalty for organizations that committed serious or repeated digital privacy breaches.
After a recent ransomware attack in October 2022 where Australia's medical insurance company was targeted by hackers that resulted in 9.7 million customers' personal data being compromised and demand of AU$15 million (US $10 million) the bill aims to prevent these from happening.
The office of the attorney general published a press release outlining the amendments applied under the Privacy Act 1988 which includes a penalty to whichever is the greater of:
AU$50 million (US$ 33 million)
3 times the value of any benefit acquired through the misuse of information
30% of the involved company's adjusted turnover in the related period
Other important changes are:
The Australian Information Commissioner will have more authority to resolve data privacy breaches.
Through the Notifiable Data Breaches, the Australian Information Commissioner will have the knowledge and understanding of information compromised when a breach occurs to assess the risk.
Improve the information-sharing powers of the Australian Information Commissioner and the Australian Communications and Media Authority.
Events: The Second World Legal Design & Innovation Summit
This week the 2nd World Legal Design & Innovation Summit will be held from December 8 and 9, 2022. The exciting new event will be held in Hotel Bristol Berlin, Germany, and aims to help change the legal tech industry by talking about legal design thinking, different legal technologies & innovation, contract visualization techniques, and user-centered solutions. Speakers include industry professionals from international companies who will share their knowledge and discuss the newest trends and legal innovations. Register here.
InfiniGlobe is a full-service consulting and software company. We have 20+ years of industry experience working with top corporate legal departments and law firms. Contact us at info@infiniglobe.com or at (833) LGL-TECH.