Recent News, Publications, and Presentations

In the past 12 months IIS has produced a number of publications, assessments and papers for clients on a range of topics.

2024

• May - Mike Trovato, Simon Liu and Nicole Stephensen have prepared a white paper on ‘The Five Safes Framework: Putting Principles into Practice’. The paper delves into the objective of the framework from a data privacy and security lens, as well as introducing a ‘Sixth Safe’ that captures the wider principles of the existing five.

• May - Nicole Stephensen and Natasha Roberts have prepared a white paper on ‘Using PETs to power up your privacy’. In support of Privacy Awareness Week and its ‘Power up your privacy’ theme, Nicole and Natasha explore how Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) can be used to enhance the privacy posture of organisations, with contributions from a panel of experts at the intersection of privacy, cybersecurity, technology policy, law and social licence.

• March 29 - Nicole Stephensen was interviewed by The New Daily as part of their reporting on the Australian Government’s Digital ID Bill. In particular, she raised concerns around access to the system by law enforcement and national security agencies, and the importance of adequate regulator funding so that it can provide meaningful oversight.

• March 28 - Mike Trovato, Malcolm Crompton, Nicole Stephensen and Natasha Roberts have made an online submission to the Attorney-General’s Department regarding its public consultation on Doxxing and Privacy Reforms.

• March 1 - Mike Trovato and Natasha Roberts have made a submission to the Department of Home Affairs regarding the 2023-2030 Australian Cyber Security Strategy Legislative Reforms Consultation Paper.

• February 22 - Malcolm Crompton was interviewed by Channel 9’s A Current Affair program on the Australian Government’s plans to introduce a voluntary digital ID for all Australians.

• February 15 - The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has announced the publication of the independent findings of the 2026 Census Phase 1 PIA conducted by IIS Partners, along with its response.

• January 23 - Malcolm Crompton, Mike Trovato and Natasha Roberts have made a submission to the Senate Standing Committees on Economics on the Digital ID Bill that has been referred to the Senate Economics Legislation Committee.

• January - Mike Trovato and Simon Liu have prepared a white paper on ‘The delicate balance between national security and privacy’. They delve into the OAIC’s ‘4A framework’, which was developed to provide guidance on how law enforcement and national security authorities can assess and deploy their powers to protect Australians, while respecting our privacy.

2023

• December 6 - Sascha Hess and Jacky Zeng have compiled a marked-up table of the Essential Eight Maturity model which highlights the November 2023 changes for easier reference.

• November - Sarah Brichet, Simon Liu, Jacky Zeng and Mike Trovato have prepared a white paper on ‘The implications of data sovereignty in Australia and abroad - Considerations for best practice in 2024’. The paper discusses the definition of data sovereignty, and key considerations for boards and executives when their organisation is storing personal information in the hands of third parties, especially ones based overseas.

• October 24 - Malcolm Crompton has been appointed to a new Ministerial Digital ID Expert Panel to provide independent advice on Australia’s digital ID program, including meeting with Finance Minister Katy Gallagher.

• October 12 - Nicole Stephensen participated in a workshop organised by the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) on exploring emerging privacy enhancing, empowering, and enforcing technologies (PE³Ts) for data governance with trust, building on the latest work from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

• October 7 - Malcolm Crompton, Nicole Stephensen, Mike Trovato and Natasha Roberts have made a submission to the Department of Finance on the Exposure Draft of Identity Verification Services Bill 2023 and the Identity Verification Services (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2023 [Provisions].

• September 29 - Nicole Stephensen was interviewed by SBS News regarding the Australian Government’s response to the Privacy Act Review.

• May - Mike Trovato and Sascha Hess have prepared an updated white paper on ‘Reforms to improve the resilience of Australia’s critical infrastructure - What businesses need to know about amendments to the Security of Critical Infrastructure (SOCI) Act 2018 (Cth)’, which includes commentary on the Critical Infrastructure Risk Management Program Rules that commenced on 17 February 2023.

• May - Nicole Stephensen was published in the latest edition of Women in Security Magazine. Nicole wrote about the three “ships” of mentorship, leadership and allyship, what they mean for our careers and for our lives, and what they can bring to our work in security and privacy.

• April 17 - Malcolm Crompton participated in a podcast with Associate Professor Gehan Gunasekara for an online course at the University of Auckland, discussing “Digital Gods and the role of digital identity service providers”.

• March 29 - Malcolm Crompton, Nicole Stephensen and Natasha Roberts have made a submission to the Attorney-General’s Department, to inform the Government response to the Privacy Act Review.

• February 16 - Nicole Stephensen gave a presentation to the Smart Cities Council Australia New Zealand about the importance of adopting a Privacy by Design mindset and having and effective Privacy Strategy. See the session here.