Federal Budget 2022: Millions of dollars to combat and investigate cyber attacks

The federal government has promised to dedicate millions of dollars to combat hackers including funds specific to the Optus and Medibank breaches.

A team of cyber experts tasked with combating hack attempts on four key government departments will receive an additional $31.3 million in funding.

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO), Defence, Home Affairs and Services Australia — all of which have been subject to the relentless assaults — will benefit from an extension of a pilot program running pools of tech experts from the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD).

The ATO alone receives an incredible three million attempted hacks of its systems every month, mostly from suspected China, Russia and Iran based cyber criminals.

The monies, announced in the budget, will go toward bolstering resilience and security measures.

The federal government has allocated $5.5 million to investigate the Optus data breach, as part of this year’s Federal Budget. Picture: NCA Newswire / Gaye Gerard

The federal government has also allocated $5.5 million to “investigate and respond to the Optus data breach” in this year’s Federal Budget.

Hidden within the October budget papers is a two-year investment for the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), a department which has seen its workload increase amid rising hacks and cyber attacks on businesses and individuals.

The watchdog began an investigation into Optus’ “personal information handling practices” on September 22, following a massive cyber attack in which data from 9.8 million Australians was accessed by hackers.

An additional $2 million will go toward assisting scam victims to recover their stolen identities particularly in the wake of the devastating assaults on Optus and health insurer Medibank Private.

In the latter, the medical details of 3.9 million Australians were stolen by a criminal who sold them on a Russian-language online forum.

Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil said it was all about responding to challenges from threats and keeping Australians safe.

The ASD had a significant $600 million boost to its operations in the previous budget which remains unchanged.

Originally published as Federal Budget 2022: Millions of dollars to combat and investigate cyber attacks