Australia sets up cyber-policing model to track hackers

Canberra, The Gulf Observer: Australia has formalised a new cyber-policing model in a stepped-up effort to “hunt down” cyber criminal syndicates, following recent hacks impacting millions of Australians.

On Saturday, Minister for Home Affairs Clare O’Neil said the government had formalised a permanent partnership between the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the Australian Signals Directorate — which intercepts electronic communications from foreign countries — to do “new tough policing” on cybercrime.O’Neil said around 100 officers would be part of the new partnership between the two federal agencies, which would act as “a joint standing operation against cyber criminal syndicates”.

The taskforce would “day in, day out, hunt down the scumbags who are responsible for these malicious crimes”, she said.Australia’s biggest health insurer, Medibank Private Ltd, last month was hit by a massive cyber attack, as Australia grapples with a rise in damaging hacks.

At least eight companies, including Singapore Telecommunications-owned telecoms company Optus, Australia’s second largest telco, have reported breaches since September.