Bill Toulas reports: The Australian parliament has approved a bill to amend the country’s privacy legislation, significantly increasing the maximum penalties to AU$50 million for companies and data controllers who suffered large-scale data breaches. The financial penalty introduced by the new bill is set to whichever is greater: AU$50 million Three times the value of…
Category: Non-U.S.
Ca: Vancouver Film School hit by paralyzing cyberattack
Tyler Orton reports: A cyberattack targeting Vancouver Film School has left students with a big lump of coal as they prepare to wrap their term in time for the holidays. “VFS has been impacted by and is investigating a suspected cyber incident. We are currently investigating and are taking all steps possible to contain and…
Privacy breach reported by Manitoba Health
Charles Lefebvre reports: Manitoba Health says a privacy breach that happened earlier this week following a break-in at a facility compromised some people’s personal health information. According to a statement from the province, the break-in took place at the Manitoba Health Appeal Board office on Portage Avenue on Nov. 29, with the province noting confidential…
New Zealand health insurer Accuro says it’s been hacked, can’t rule out customers’ data being accessed
NewsHub reports: The company said in a statement there was not yet evidence of personal health data being compromised but it could not be ruled out. “Our IT provider is working with their own forensic experts and Government agencies to understand the nature and extent of the impact. We have also notified the relevant regulatory authorities including…
Albanian IT Staff Charged With Negligence Over Cyberattack
AP reports: Albanian prosecutors on Wednesday asked for the house arrest of five public employees they blame for not protecting the country from a cyberattack by alleged Iranian hackers. Prosecutors said the five IT officials of the public administration department had failed to check the security of the system and update it with the most recent…
Vanuatu officials turn to phone books and typewriters, one month after cyber attack
At the end of October, the tiny South Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu was hit by a cyberattack with devastating consequences. They officially acknowledged the incident as an attack on November 5. Now, almost a month later, they are still struggling to recover. Christopher Cottrell reports: One month after a cyber-attack brought down government servers and…