Australian legislation brings strict laws against ransomware

The Australian legislation plans to take serious actions against ransomware by planning a structure to increase the penalties of wrongdoers.

The federal government on October 13 announced the new structure of measures and the Surveillance Legislation Amendment against ransomware. It added that a 60% increase follows these measures in cyber crimes on Australian state agencies and businesses in the past year.

As per the reports, these cyberattacks resulted in a loss of $AU1.4 billion. 

Australian legislation aims to seize foreign attacks

The Australian legislation aims to improve current law as per the modern days to make it easier for them to recover crypto funds affected by the crimes.

Through new structures and amendments, authorities would have the power to freeze financial cryptocurrencies transactions associated with crimes without worrying about the origin country of the crime.

Karen Andrews, the minister of Home Affairs of the country, said that the new structure aims to deter the attacks on Australian firms by international cyber attackers.

She said, “Our strict new laws will target this cyber criminality and hit cybercrooks where it hurts most — their bank balances.”

The amendments will also have strict actions over stolen data and buying and selling malware during attacks.

In July, the Australian legislation, along with a multi-agency task force Operation Orcus made the team track down ransomware attacks. The report says that most of the cases had involvement with Russia with the malware REvil and DarkSide. These types of malware steal data and, later, demand a ransom with crypto payment.

Lawmakers seek to subdue ransomware attacks

It is important to note that Australia has been facing many ransomware attacks recently. Many big companies like Brewing company Lion, Uniting Care Queensland, Nine Entertainment, Toll Holdings, etc. have been the target.

Lately, U.S. lawmakers are also coming forward with solutions to tackle ransomware. In early October 2021, Elizabeth Warren, the famous anti-crypto Senator, introduced the Ransom Disclosure Act aiming to gather data related to cryptocurrency involvement in ransomware attacks.