Australia, which suffered several high-volume, high-profile data breaches in recent weeks – including Medibank’s this week – is about to make significant legislative changes including huge hikes in penalties for breaches. The plan to be presented to parliament this week is to increase the maximum for serious or repeated breaches from the current AUS $2.22 million to AUS $50 million; or the greater of 3x the value of any benefit, or 30% of a company’s adjusted turnover in the relevant period.