Australia’s hospitals and health care system are at a high risk from cyberattackers targeting citizens’ personal data, the home affairs minister said, adding the country needed to step up its efforts to combat hacking attempts.
Speaking ahead of an international cybersecurity meeting due to be held in Australia within months, Clare O’Neil told Bloomberg News that while protecting citizens’ data was a “core national issue” for the new Labor government, more work needed to be done to end Australia’s perception as a “soft target.”
“The question is, are we tackling the cybersecurity threat with an energy level commensurate to which we’re being attacked? And I would say that we’re not there at the moment,” she said in an interview late last week.
Australia will host an international ransomware task force in early 2023 to bring together countries including the US, UK and Germany in tackling the growing threat to cybersecurity.
The meeting comes after several hacks of major Australian companies in recent months, including communications giant Optus and…
