The Australian government says it will centralize its approach to securing federal agencies by appointing a coordinator to head the new National Office for Cyber Security within the Department of Home Affairs. The appointment comes after the country down under experienced back-to-back major data breaches. Medibank, Australia’s largest private health insurer, saw Russia-based ransomware hackers…

Australia has been the victim of damaging cyberattacks in the latter half of this year, with high-profile incidents impacting businesses across critical sectors such as telecoms, healthcare, and government. The impacts of some of these attacks have been rolling on for months, with new details and further information about data breached from the incidents suffered…

Medibank told investors that a “sample” of data from some 9.7 million clients had been posted on a “dark web forum” — and that more leaks were likely. Sensitive records were posted anonymously in the early hours of Wednesday and included names, birth dates, passport numbers and information on medical claims for hundreds of customers….

The penalties for serious breaches of the Privacy Act would increase from 2.2 million Australian dollars ($1.4 million) now to AU$50 million ($32 million) under amendments to be introduced to Parliament next week, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said. A company could also be fined the value of 30% of its revenues over a defined period if…