519 data breach include 33 from Australian government entities

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Australian entities covered by the Privacy Act reported 519 instances of data breaches in the six months to December 2020, a 5% increase from the first half of the year.

Data breach notification to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) became mandatory under the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme in February 2018. 23% of all notifications received by the OAIC involved malicious actors gaining access to accounts using compromised or stolen credentials, with the most common method email-based phishing.