The loss of personal data is now a common story worldwide, with
over 143 million people
recently having their private information including names,
Social Security numbers, birth dates, addresses and even some
credit card numbers being stolen in the Equifax data breach. A study by
IBM has found that the average cost for a data breach is $3.62
million USD. As such, it is not surprising that the Australian
Government has introduced new laws regarding data breaches and the
requirement of mandatory disclosure where a data breach has
occurred or is suspected as having occurred.
The Privacy
Amendment (Notifiable Data Breaches) Act 2017 amends the
Privacy
Act 1977 to require entities to notify both the Australian
Information Commissioner as well as all affected individuals where
an eligible data breach has occurred or is reasonably suspected to
have had occurred. Eligible data breaches are where there is
unauthorised access or disclosure of personal information,
