According to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner's (OAIC) most recent report on notifiable data breaches, there was a 26% rise in breaches in the second half of 2022, including many significant breaches that affected millions of Australians.
The OAIC reports that cyber security incidents led to 33 out of the 40 breaches affecting more than 5,000 Australians. In the first half of 2022, there were just 24 significant breaches.
Massive data breaches at Optus and Medibank in the second half of 2022 exposed the personal data of about 9.8 million and 9.7 million people, respectively.
Large-scale breaches naturally garnered a lot of attention, although only 62% of reported breaches had an impact on more than 100 persons.
In total, malicious or criminal attacks accounted for 70% of data breaches. Human error, which most frequently manifests itself in the form of sending emails to the wrong recipient, closely followed by unintended release or publication, and failing to use BCC when sending emails came in third place, accounting for another 25% of data breaches.
In the December quarter of 2022, Australia's gross domestic product increased by just 0.5%, a dramatic fall from the December quarter of 2021 when lockdowns in Sydney and Melbourne were lifted. Despite migrant arrivals increasing by 171% to 395,000 from 146,000 in 2021–22, the GDP per capita—or the economic output for each individual—remained unchanged.
The Commonwealth government responded, in part, by toughening the penalties under the Privacy Act and giving the Australian Information Commissioner more authority to enforce it. It also started a review of the Act. One of the suggestions is to eliminate the Privacy Act's small business exemption, which presently excludes the majority of companies with annual sales of up to A$3 million, but only after an impact review and other criteria have been completed.
