Labor plan to beef up government’s cyber powers faces Senate block

A paper expanding on greater ability to intervene during hacks – especially on private companies – causes alarm among Coalition and Greens

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Labor could face Senate difficulties if it tries to dramatically expand the government’s powers to directly intervene in companies’ IT systems during cyber-attacks.

Under existing laws – which were controversial when introduced by the former Coalition government – the Australian Signals Directorate has the ability to “step in” as a “last resort” in some emergency situations, but only for critical infrastructure assets.