The Australian government is looking to pass the Security Legislation Amendment (Critical Infrastructure) Bill 2020, an overhaul which is aimed to help Australian businesses fend off cyberattacks. The Bill expands the business sectors that were previously defined as critical infrastructure by adding, amongst others, Food and Grocery, Finance and Banking, Universities, Communications, Defense, Energy, and Transportation to the list. It would also impose strict 12-hour reporting requirements for cyberattacks as well as allow the Australian Signals Directorate to ‘step in’ to protect networks during or following a significant cyberattack.

In a letter to a member of the Australian Parliament, the Information Technology Industry Council, the Australian Information Industry Association, and the Cybersecurity Coalition, which represent multiple technology firms including  Google, Microsoft, Intel, Adobe, and Amazon, said, “Without significant revision, the Bill will create an unworkable set of obligations and set a troubling global precedent.” Also, “We are also concerned by the global impact that such a Bill will have and how it undermines the values that Australia promotes internationally.” The letter goes on to declare that, “This undermines the government’s good work internationally on these issues and sets a disturbing precedent for other governments facing similar national security challenges”.

Government Intervention or Market Systems

This is not the only instance of Australia setting a global precedent in opposition to technology leaders. In early 2021, Australia became the first country to require Facebook and Google to pay for news content provided by media companies under a royalty-style system. In her statement to the Senate Economics Committee, Melanie Silva, managing director of Google Australia and New Zealand, said, “in its current form, the Code remains unworkable.” “The principle of unrestricted linking between websites is fundamental to Search. Coupled with the unmanageable financial and operational risk (Read more...)