Australia: Announced Amendment to Telecommunications Regulations 2021

On 6 October 2021, the Australian government announced plans to amend the Telecommunications Regulations 2021. The decision comes following the data breach at Optus, an Australian telecommunications company. In particular, the Amendment would enable telecommunication firms to cooperate with financial firms and state agencies to reduce the risks of cyberattacks and address vulnerabilities. In cases where an entity identifies a possible fraud or scam or suspects that a data breach will occur or may have already occurred, the Amendment would enable the telecommunication company to share privileged personal information, including health data or document numbers of individuals in question, with certain financial institutions. Those institutions would use that information to mitigate the cyber threat. The shared data will be used for specific and intended purposes and deleted once the cyber threat is mitigated.