The Federal Government says it will launch a “standing operation” to investigate and disrupt the practices of cyber crime syndicates, with a focus on ransomware threat groups in the light of the Optus and Medibank data breaches.

The Office of Home Affairs announced that the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) will coordinate with international partners to shut down online criminal operations “regardless of where they are”.

“The recent Optus and Medibank data breaches have shown the extent of the damage that can be done by malicious actors,” Minister of Home Affairs Clare O’Neil said.

“This new joint campaign will ensure the full powers of the AFP and ASD are brought to bear to stop such incidents before they start.

“Where incidents do take place, it means that cyber criminals will be hunted down and their networks disrupted. It sends an important message to criminals and hackers intending to do harm – Australia will fight back.”

Ms O’Neil described ransomware as a “global scourge” which requires “coordinated international action to combat”. The effort comes after recent data breaches of major Australian companies, including Optus and Medibank, exposed millions of Australians’ private data and information to hackers.

The Department of Home Affairs Cyber and Critical Technology Coordination Centre will host the taskforce and international government stakeholders to discuss effective solutions against cyber crime.

“The international counter-ransomware task force will drive international cooperation and joint efforts to tackle ransomware including through information and intelligence exchanges, sharing best practice policy and legal authority frameworks, and collaboration between law enforcement and cyber authorities to conduct counter-ransomware activities,” Ms O’Neil said.

The government has also aimed to pass stricter privacy laws that will increase penalties for data breaches to at least $50 million.

It says the proposed changes will help to act as an incentive for companies and large organisations to have adequately installed security to prevent the risk of similar exposures of customer data.