New regulations allow governments and financial institutions to request data held by telcos

Optus was recently the subject of what is being billed as the largest cyber-attack in Australian history. As flagged in our previous article, the Federal Government is currently reviewing Australia's privacy and information security legislation, with various options mooted, including stronger privacy laws and harsher financial penalties for breaches.

Recently, the Federal Government announced the first in what will likely be a series of changes to update Australian privacy and information security legislation - granting governments and certain financial services providers the ability to request information from telecommunications carriers and carriage service providers (telcos) in relation to cybersecurity incidents.