Bill Toulas reports: Australia’s Minister for Home Affairs has announced the “Australian Government’s Ransomware Action Plan,” which is a set of new measures the country will adopt in an attempt to tackle the rising threat. […] To further strengthen the ability to conduct investigations and disrupt ransomware attacks, the government is looking to establish new…
Category: Federal
Singapore passes law to tackle ‘foreign interference,’ giving authorities the power to block internet content
On October 5, Reuters reported: Singapore’s Parliament has approved a law giving broad powers to the government to deal with foreign interference — sparking concern from the opposition and experts about its wide scope and limits on judicial review. The small and open city-state, which says it is vulnerable to foreign meddling, targeted fake news with a…
K–12 Cybersecurity Act Signed into Law
David Nagel reports: On Friday, Oct. 8, President Biden signed the K–12 Cybersecurity Act of 2021 into law. The act comes in response to growing data security incidents impacting K–12 schools in recent years, including a dramatic rise in ransomware and other forms of malware. On its own, the legislation is fairly simple: It authorizes the director of…
Federal government announces two initiatives of note
In the news yesterday: Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco Announces National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco announced today the creation of a National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET), to tackle complex investigations and prosecutions of criminal misuses of cryptocurrency, particularly crimes committed by virtual currency exchanges, mixing and tumbling services, and…
NZ: Reserve Bank hit with compliance notice from Privacy Commissioner over data breach
Chris Keall reports: The Reserve Bank has suffered the ignominy of being the first organisation to be hit by a compliance notice under the new Privacy Act, which came into force in December last year. Privacy Commissioner John Edwards says an independent review carried out by KPMG after a December 2020 cyber attack “revealed multiple…
Ransomware Resources for HIPAA Regulated Entities
The HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is sharing the following information to ensure that HIPAA regulated entities are aware of the resources available to assist in preventing, detecting, and mitigating breaches of unsecured protected health information caused by hacking and ransomware. HHS Health Sector Cybersecurity Coordination Center Threat Briefs: https://www.hhs.gov/about/agencies/asa/ocio/hc3/products/index.html#sector-alerts January 28, 2021 –…