June 16, 2023
The Coalition is deeply concerned by reports that Commonwealth data from sensitive agencies including the Department of Home Affairs, the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner has been stolen by Russian-linked hackers who infiltrated the systems of HWL Ebsworth.
Protecting Australian Government data is more important than ever in light of recent significant cyber incidents and our current strategic environment.
The Albanese Government must take every action necessary to secure the compromised data.
This requires complete transparency about what data has been stolen, the implications of the breach and measures being undertaken to inform and support affected third parties.
Given their own cyber and regulatory responsibilities, agencies like the Department of Home Affairs and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner now have an opportunity to be national exemplars on how to respond to major cyber incidents, secure compromised data and support affected parties.
Malicious cyberactivity of this nature and scale cannot go unaccounted.
The Coalition notes with concern that the Albanese Government has yet to exercises its powers under the Magnitsky sanctions regime to sanction individuals who engage in egregious, offensive cyber activity against Australia. Once again, the Opposition offers bipartisan support for them to do so.
