Australia’s biggest-ever cyber attack has sparked calls for the government to ban ransomware payments.
“In line with advice from cybercrime experts, Latitude strongly believes that paying a ransom will be detrimental to our customers and cause harm to the broader community by encouraging further criminal attacks.”in around 7.9 million Australian and New Zealand driver's license numbers being stolen, in addition to 6.1 million customer records, 53,000 passport numbers, and 100 customer financial statements.
The Australian government’s lead cybersecurity agency, the Australian Cyber Security Centre , currently recommends that victims of ransomware attacks never pay a ransom saying there’s no guarantee the information will be returned instead of being sold online.Despite the recommendation, there is currently no law prohibiting firms from paying ransoms and the latest attack on Latitude prompted many from the Australian tech industry to call for new rules to outlaw it.
The director of technology law firm Biztech Lawyers, Andrew Truswell, also told The Australian that a law restricting ransom payments should be considered. Cyber Security Minister Clare O’Neil is currently weighing if ransom payments should be made illegal following suggestions from aCyber criminals cheat, lie and steal. Paying them only fuels the ransomware business model.
They commit to undertaking actions in return for payment, but so often re-victimise companies and individuals.
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