The ‘silver lining’ after series of concerning data hacks

A director of the Centre for Responsible Technology says the “silver lining” to come from the recent series of concerning data hacks is that privacy law updates are ready to go before Parliament next year.

The claimed Medibank hacker yesterday released health data from about 200 customers in a bid to force the health insurer to pay the demanded ransom.

Director of the Centre for Responsible Technology, Peter Lewis, says this is “the canary in a coalmine moment”.

Press PLAY below to hear the good Mr Lewis thinks can come from the recent hacks

“We need to think about the information that organisations are holding about us,” he told Neil Mitchell.

“If there’s a silver lining out of these hacks it’s that we’ve got some privacy laws that are sitting before the Parliament ready to go in the first quarter of next year and we’ve really got to get behind tightening these provisions up. It’s not just about penalties for criminals, it’s actually about the amount of information organisations collect.”

Mr Lewis says it’s been almost 40 years since privacy laws were updated, and the framework in place isn’t suitable for the internet age.

“We’ve created this world where organisations collect as much data as they can because they think it’s some form of oil that they’ll get future value out of. We’ve got to start treating it more like uranium – it’s very dangerous to hold and it’s impossible to dispose of,” he said.