Australian government has imposed a ban on ransom payments in cyber attack incidents as it fears that such payments can encourage crime affecting millions of populaces at a time.
Already, from the past two months, the IT infrastructure owned by the government agencies such as telecom and insurance are being constantly targeted by state funded hackers. In case of ransomware, the victim is being asked to shell out millions to free up data.
To block such payments, Clare O’Neil, the Australian Home Affairs Minister, issued a public statement through ABC Television on November 13th,2022, issuing a ban on financial payments made to cybercrime in any form. This includes cryptocurrency payments sent to e-wallets of criminals or those alleged to be owned by hackers.
Australian Federal Police (AFP has formulated a new cyber policing model) and it is being supported by the Australian Signals Directorate that has the right to penalize any foreign interception on electronic communication owned by public and private entities.
Under the honorable leadership of PM Anthony Albanese, two federal agencies reportedly appointed a team of security experts comprising 100 officers and their duty is to conduct tracking and nabbing of cyber criminals spreading ransomware and will coordinate with Interpol and US CISA.
NOTE- Medibank Insurance that lost information of 10 million of its customers to Russian cyber gang is said to face harsh penalties, if it was found evading basic security practices in securing the info if its customers.
