Fears Australian’s personal data could be misused or stolen by international cyber criminals has prompted the Government to review its security.
Speaking at the National Press Club in Canberra on Tuesday, Mr Robert revealed the Government was investigating the sovereignty requirements for certain data sets including the Census.
This means the data should only be hosted in Australia, in an accredited Australian data centre, across Australian networks and only accessed by the Federal Government and its service providers nationally.
The push for additional safeguards follows Prime Minister Scott Morrison last month warning Australian organisations were being targeted by a sophisticated state-based cyber actor.
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READ NOW“When developing the COVIDSafe app, Australians were loud and clear that they expect government to respect their privacy and have their data stored, secured and protected here, in Australia,” he said.
“The tech community has worked with us and we have now completed seven updates to the app, including addressing over 30 potential bugs and areas for improvement.
“We need to ensure that Australians can trust that government will appropriately manage the information that they provide to us – whether it is for a tracing app or for the Census.”
In his speech, Mr Robert announced a new Digital Transformation Agency project that will create a platform with visas and permit processing capability.
He highlighted an increased push for people to use their voice to confirm their identity when using government services – all which are due to be made available digitally by 2025.
Mr Robert also committed more support for complex cases at Service Australia shopfronts.
While online, people can personalise their interactions on the new MyGov beta site.
“You can personalise your Netflix feed or your Facebook page, so there is no excuse why you shouldn’t be able to do it when dealing with government,” he said.
He also spruiked software changes that would enable welfare entitlements to be calculated faster and “more accurately”, which will also be rolled out to aged care and veterans income support.
The minister came under fire during the pandemic when the MyGov website crashed as desperate Australians who found themselves out of work during the lockdowns tried to claim for government support.
But Mr Robert said the agency responded to the needs raised during COVID-19, implementing 50 policy changes to 20 payments on behalf of numerous government departments over 55 days.
“The Services Australia story will be forever defined by the challenges it has faced over the last six months,” he said.