individually certify the accuracy of financial information, applying much more severe penalties for fraudulent financial activity. While SOX has raised the compliance bar for corporate reporting, it has had the unintended impact of creating a lot of uncertainty due to lack of precision. In fact, SOX compliance costs and complexity have run out of control in the U.S. Australian organisations will face the same dilemma with the new Australian privacy law - they "must take reasonable steps" to demonstrate compliance with the new legislation without a clear understanding of exactly what is required. To successfully comply, both public and private sector organisations need to take special note of key changes to the law and act now to prepare for March 2014.
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A Brief Guide to the ICT Security Controls Required by the Australian Privacy Principles
The Privacy Amendment Act 2012 has passed through the Australian Parliament and took effect on 12 March 2014. The new legislation introduces significant obligations for the protection of Personal Information held by Australian organisations and material financial penalties of $1.7mil for all Australian organisations with revenues greater than $3mil. Organisations that collect and or hold Personal Information are required to comply with the Privacy Act 1988 and its Amendments. The Privacy Amendment Act includes a set of new, harmonised, privacy principles that will regulate the handling of Personal Information by both Australian government agencies and businesses. One of the key aspects of the amendments involve changes to the penalties for non- compliance. The Australian Information Commissioner’s powers have been expanded under the Amending Act reforms. The Commissioner will have the power to issue guidelines to a non- compliant entity or vary their registered APP code by including additional requirements for compliance. Breaches of the Privacy Act will be deemed an interference with privacy and could lead to an entity being subject to investigation by the Commissioner. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner has published a handy guide that organisations can follow to understand what ICT security measures that need to undertake.
Read more -CRIMINAL RECORDS-
Number of NSW Police with Criminal Records has Doubled Last Five Years The number of New South Wales (NSW) police officers with criminal records has more than doubled over the last five years. Around one in 40 serving officers have committed criminal offences, some as serious as assault, drink driving, fraud and the illegal use of guns. NSW Police says efforts to weed out those who've committed offences are sometimes thwarted by the Industrial Relations Commission, which frequently reinstates sacked cops. NSW Police acting commissioner David Hudson says that police officers “are assessed on their individual merits and a decision made as to whether those individuals have, those individual police officers have lost their entitlement to be a police officer.” Even though it may be frustrating for the commissioner to have a decision overturned, Hudson says that he can’t comment on the courts’ determinations. “There is a huge cost to the community of NSW in relation to training these officers and whether one mistake curtails their career, in many instances it does because of the level of criminality but some of the lower levels of criminality, the decision is made for them to remain in the police.”
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