Australia Today Update: Companies who fail to protect customers after significant attacks on Optus and Medibank

The Albanese government is cracking down on companies hit by Cyberattacks in the wake of major breaches at Optus and Medibank, multimillion-dollar fines will be introduced. While today the Prime Minister strengthened security on another front, a warm embrace and. A very Australian welcome. They're like big teddy bears. For Japan's. Prime Minister Fumio Kashida in Perth.

You are doing wonders for Australian tourism. Prime Minister also signed a joint declaration on security cooperation and a critical minerals partnership. Our affinity is in our common need for a peaceful, prosperous, resilient, and secure Indo-Pacific. Our special strategic partnership has up to a replacement and better level.

The declaration renews a 2007 commitment. While it's not a military alliance, it will deliver the most intimate military cooperation ever between the two nations. It's a step up in the relationship at a critical point when both Japan and Australia are facing a serious challenge from China.

And while regional security is a top priority, so too is Cyber security. The government announcing tougher multimillion-dollar fines for repeated privacy breaches, cracking down on. Companies fail to protect customers after significant attacks on Optus and Medibank.

The maximum fine at the moment is two 2 million. And for a really big company, that's just a cost of doing business. It's something that they can safely ignore. The change is increasing the maximum penalty to $50 million, or three times the value of any benefit obtained through the misuse of information, or 30% of a company's turnover, whichever is higher. For Optus customers and Medibank customers, this is too little, too late.

The new laws will give more power to the Information Commissioner and will be introduced to Parliament next week.