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Stronger powers for Australian cyber spies to intervene in major attacks against a wide range of essential services have been passed by parliament.
Cyber ​​attacks against Australia’s critical infrastructure will be extended to energy, communications, financial services, defense industry and higher education.
Companies that fall under this definition will be required to report all cyber incidents to the Australian Signals Branch and the government may step in to “protect assets immediately before, during or after a significant cyber attackâ€.
Sen. Jim Molan, a former Army major general, told the Senate that no country has seen China’s full power or Russia’s cyber capability.
Senator Molan said Australia may not see the full capacity of these states until approaching or during a war.
“These are worrying times. Australia, as a nation, is vulnerable,” he said.
The bill passed with government and Labor backing, but Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe spoke out on the bill, calling it “a half-baked … greedy little takeover.”
Senator Thorpe said the laws would place excessive and serious obligations on companies that were not consulted prior to its introduction.
The bill’s passage comes a week after the ASD chief said a quarter of all cyber attacks the organization responded to were directed against critical infrastructure such as energy, water, telecommunications and health services.
Chief Executive Officer Rachel Noble said malicious state actors would attack these systems in an attempt to gather intelligence or plant bugs and malware that would be able to deny, degrade or disrupt these services at their discretion.
Home Secretary Karen Andrews said there had been a number of cyber attacks on Australia’s parliament, hospitals, schools and universities over the past two years, but these attacks would not be comparable to an attack on the national electricity grid or a major international airport.
Australian Associated Press
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