The guide's release marks the start of the Privacy Awareness Week 2013

Apr 29, 2013 08:19 GMT  ·  By

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) has marked the start of this year’s Privacy Awareness Week with the launch of a new information security guide.

The paper, “Guide to Information Security: ‘Reasonable steps’ to protect personal information,” is designed to help government agencies and private firms to comply with the requirements under the Privacy Act.

Although the guide is not binding, it does highlight what the OAIC expects from organizations as far as information security measures are concerned.

“Information security is clearly a significant privacy issue and has emerged as a major challenge for us all. These incidents tell us that ‘privacy by design’ is essential. Organisations need to build privacy into business as usual practices and new projects,” said the Australian Privacy Commissioner, Timothy Pilgrim.

“With the steady increase in the collection of personal information in the online environment and the reliance on electronic and online records, businesses and government agencies cannot ignore the need to take steps to protect the personal information of their customers or clients,” Pilgrim added.

“This is critical to meet the current requirements of the Privacy Act 1988 as well as new requirements due to commence in less than 12 months.”

The Privacy Commissioner has highlighted that all the investigations completed in 2011 and 2012 involved data security issues.

“If an organisation mishandles the personal information of its clients or customers, the consequences are not simply legal and regulatory. There are the serious financial costs incurred due to remediation and potential significant financial loss due to diminished corporate reputation and reduced consumer trust,” he said.

The complete guide released by the OAIC is available on oaic.gov.au, here.