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ARTICLE · 25 FEBRUARY 2026

Cybersecurity Enforcement Intensifies: Lessons From FIIG Securities' $2.5m Compliance Penalty

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First time that penalties have been awarded under the general Australian financial services licence obligations for cybersecurity deficiencies.

AustraliaFinance and Banking
James North
James North
Steven Rice
Steven Rice
Mark Bland
Mark Bland
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The Federal Court has imposed a $2.5 million penalty on FIIG Securities Limited (FIIG) for failing to maintain adequate cybersecurity measures. This marks the first time penalties have been awarded under the general Australian financial services (AFS) licence obligations for cybersecurity deficiencies.1

FIIG's failures occurred over four years (March 2019 to June 2023) and materially worsened the impact of a May 2023 ransomware attack. FIIG admitted that adequate measures would have enabled earlier detection and prevented some or all of the 385 gigabyte data exfiltration.

The Court confirmed that licensees are not expected to be able to prevent all cyber incidents, and that ASIC is not seeking to impose an unattainable standard of information protection. Rather, the question is whether licensees have 'adequate' cyber protection systems in place, considering the nature, scale and risk profile of the business.

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