Peter A Clarke

In Australia, it is not illegal to pay a ransome to a hacker. It is illegal not to advise the Government that a ransom has been paid. The process of when and how to report is set out in the Cyber Security Act 2024 (the “CS Act”)....

In my experience organisations that do not have a data breach response plan, which they test and rehearse, suffer for it when there is a data breach.  Those organisations  commonly resist engaging with the community, media or even government. That may suit some businesses but does not help when dealing with a data breach, where controlled transpare...

The Origin energy data breach has been handled very badly by Origin to date.  That is not to say it has not been trying harder.  Often how an organisation responds in the first few days of a data breach sets the tone. That is certainly the experience in the United States.  Here the culture is less attuned to having a data breach recovery plan and th...

Utilities and telcos are prime targets of cyber attack.  The number of unsuccessful attacks are rarely publicised.  The successful attacks which involve access to large amounts of data are well publicised. As the recent attack on Origin energy proves. Not surprising given the hacker claims to have accessed records of 2 million customers. It has b...