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Shadow minister for cyber security and shadow minister for countering foreign interference James Paterson says the government must provide the right tools to keep the real estate industry safe from cyber criminals and data breaches.
Speaking to Real Estate Business, Mr Paterson said most Australians would agree it is too much of a burden to expect a tenant or landlord, when dealing with their real estate agent or conveyancer, to be thinking about all the different times they need to protect their private information.
“Ultimately, the burden will fall on the service provider to provide that protection, and also on [the] government to make sure it is not necessary for them to take too much of that burden by coming back with digital identification and other options, which means that data doesn’t need to be collected and certainly doesn’t need to be stored,” he said. “It shouldn’t be stored for a long period of time.”
Mr Paterson said it is not uncommon for suburban real estate offices to be holding passport details and other sensitive financial information on their clients, leaving them very vulnerable to criminals.
“We need to look at some more systemic changes that will uplift security for all of those firms. And one of the ones that [have] been touted and our government initiated but didn’t conclude was forms of digital identification where it’s just not necessary anymore to collect all that information,” he said.
“I should not have to provide a copy of my passport or my driver’s licence to 15 different private providers.”
Mr Paterson’s comments come as NSW MP Victor Dominello reveals plans to enable digital identification to be utilised by residents for tenant applications in the state.
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