A major Australian pathology lab has been ordered to pay a $5.8m fine for an array of failings when it suffered a data breach that leaked the personal information of hundreds of thousands of Australians.

Australian Clinical Labs was ordered to pay the multi-million-dollar fine by the Federal Court on Wednesday in a first-of-its-kind penalty.

The company suffered a data breach in 2022 which the ruling judge Justice Halley said were “extensive and significant” as 223,000 individuals were impacted.

He said ACL’s most senior management were involved in poor decision-making with the breach coming from the higher ups’ “failure to act with sufficient care and diligence in managing the risk of a cyberattack” on the company’s IT systems.

The company also failed to conduct a timely investigation

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