Cyber Security Act 2024:
Your Guide to Compliance

Get clear, practical steps to meet the Act’s new reporting rules, strengthen defences and prove it—all without pausing day-to-day business.

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Australia's Cyber Security Act 2024

Key Dates You Need to Know

See when the Act becomes law, when mandatory reporting begins, and how long the government’s education-first grace period lasts—so you can schedule upgrades, budgets and employee training.

29 Nov 2024

Act receives Royal Assent—Australia’s first economy-wide cyber-security law begins

30 May 2025

Mandatory ransomware-payment reporting starts; 72-hour deadline for businesses with ≥ $3 m turnover

30 May – 31 Dec 2025

Education-first phase: guidance over penalties. Compliance enforcement and fines kick in from 1 Jan 2026

What the Act requires of you

3 Core Business Duties

Report Ransom or Extortion Payments

If your annual turnover is ≥ AU $3 million, you must lodge a Ransomware Payment Report within 72 hours of paying (or learning of) a ransom

Share Incident Details Under Protection

Voluntarily brief the National Cyber Security Coordinator during or after an incident—information is shielded from most regulatory or legal action

Participate In Post-Incident Reviews

For nationally significant incidents, you may be invited (or required) to supply information to be published in lessons-learned reports without blame or liability

Cyber Security Act support

Does the Act Affect Your Business?

Do you turn over ≥ $3 million a year in Australia?

Businesses above this threshold are classed as “reporting business entities” and must lodge any ransomware-payment report within 72 hours.

Are you the responsible entity for a critical-infrastructure asset under the SOCI Act?

Critical-infrastructure operators are in scope regardless of annual revenue.

Have you paid (or could you pay) a ransom or other cyber-extortion demand?

If the answer is yes and you meet either of the above criteria, a formal report is mandatory.

Cyber Security Act 2024 support

How DefenderSuite Simplifies Compliance

Baseline Audit & Vulnerability Scan

Our experts conduct health-check against every Cyber Security Act obligation and the ACSC's Essential Eight, ranking vulnerabilities by business impact and compliance risk

01

Introduces multi-factor authentication, automated patching and verified backups

02

Includes approved-only software and phishing-resistant email security

03

Includes Just-in-time admin access plus data encryption and loss-prevention controls

04

Includes continuous threat hunting with insider-risk analytics and adaptive policies

Prioritised Remediation & Hardening

24 × 7 Monitoring

Security Operations monitors threats round-the-clock, applies patches, reviewing Essential Eight scores and alignment with the Cyber Security Act

Ready-to-share documentation showing Cyber Security Act obligations met, Essential Eight maturity level, and any incident or ransom report prepared for quick submission