The Australian government has shelved plans to ban ransomware payments to cyber-criminal groups for at least two years.
The government had put the question to the industry in a consultation on whether it should prohibit the payments of ransoms, extortion demands by cyber criminals by victims of cybercrime and or insurers. And if so, under what circumstances. They also wanted to understand the impact of having a strict prohibition of payment of ransomware and extortion demands. Responses from the industry consultation highlighted the complexity of imposing an outright ban and the minister for cyber security decided that more groundwork needed to be done before any ban on payments could be initiated. The minister said that there will ultimately be a ban on ransomware payments but work needs to done to prepare the country to manage the impacts of such a ban. Such work includes ensuring that the federal police is properly resourced and equipped to deal with this problem.
https://minister.homeaffairs.gov.au/ClareONeil/Pages/interview-with-patricia-karvelas-22112023.aspx
https://www.itnews.com.au/news/gov-shelves-ransomware-payments-ban-for-at-least-two-years-602670
This segment was created for the It’s 5:05 podcast
https://505updates.com/2023-11-24-cybersecurity-and-open-source-headlines/