Ensuring Compliance with Australia’s SOCI Act - Compliance Brief

On 25 November 2024, the Security of Critical Infrastructure and Other Legislation Amendment (Enhanced Response and Prevention) Bill 2024 (SOCI Act), which was included in the Cyber Security Legislative Package was passed into law. The SOCI Act gives the Government broader powers to deliver on Shield 4 of the Cyber Security Strategy 2023- 2030 (protecting critical infrastructure) and to address gaps and issues of the evolving cyber threat landscape.

The key features of the SOCI Act include: 

• Data storage systems that hold business critical data 
• New government consequence management powers 
• New definition of ‘protected information’  
• New power for the regulator to issue directions

The SOCI Act amendments in Schedule 1 strengthen the protection of data storage systems and business-critical data; Thales’ solutions can help organizations comply with the SOCI Act by simplifying compliance and automating security reducing the burden on security and compliance teams.