Alert in response to Optus breach

THE peak body for the nation’s financial regulators is on alert following the Optus data breach, confirming it has been “working closely” in recent days with financial institutions on cyber security and “know your customer” requirements.

The Council of Financial Regulators (CFR) – comprising the Reserve Bank, the Australian Securities & Investments Commission, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority and the federal Treasury – also advised it had been liaising closely with the competition watchdog and the tax office following the breach, in which confidential data of 10 million people was stolen by hackers.

In a statement released on Tuesday following its quarterly meeting, the CFR detailed the key discussions of its most recent gathering, including the increasing pressure on households and businesses from high inflation and rising rates, the RBA digital currency pilot, leverage in the superannuation system, and management of climate change financial risks.

The quarterly meeting, held last Wednesday, came a day before Optus revealed it had suffered a major data breach that saw details of up to 9.8 million customers stolen from the telco’s customer database.

In the wake of the breach, and given the extent of the personal information stolen, the CFR advised: “Council members, the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission and the ATO have been liaising closely in response to the recent Optus data breach.

“Council members are also working closely with financial institutions, reinforcing the importance of cyber security and the ‘know your customer’ requirements.”

Ahead of the major data breach, the CFR at its meeting discussed progress with cyber resilience initiatives, including the development of a cyberattack protocol with New Zealand regulators and its resilience testing framework.

On the economic outlook, the council sounded a note of optimism despite the mounting headwinds, pointing to the strong jobs market and high household savings buffers.

For businesses, the council noted that insolvencies were lower than pre-Covid.