Banks to Undergo Cyber War Games in a Bid to Ensure Customers’ Data is Safe
The federal government will bring major banks and financial services companies together to practice responses to future cyber attacks.
Key points:
Banks and financial services companies will drill responses to cyber attacks and data breaches
The federal government is preparing for more hacks on critical services
Home Affairs Minister Clare
O’Neil is working on a national cyber strategy
It comes after a spate of high-profile hacks exposed the data of millions of Australians, including customers of Latitude Financial, Medibank and Optus.
Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil said Australians were becoming increasingly familiar with the reality of cyber attacks.
“Australians have now experienced Optus, Medibank and Latitude. In each breach, some data of millions of Australians was stolen. For our citizens, almost every Australian adult or a member of their family is probably the victim of a cyber attack,” Ms O’Neil said.
“We’ve experienced three really large-scale data breaches. The impacts are serious and real and consequential, a genuine and massive concern to me and the country.” In February, the government announced it would overhaul a $1.7 billion cybersecurity plan set up under Scott Morrison in the aftermath of the hacks of Optus and Medibank.
It is also preparing for potential attacks on critical services like hospitals, the traffic network and the banking system.
“When you think about the impacts of the failure of a major hospital, or interruption of a traffic network, or serious disruption of our banking system, the impacts can get much worse,” Ms O’Neil said.