Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil says cybersecurity is "a defining national security problem for our country".
The minister pointed to similar laws overseas to move towards to ensure apps and programs have built-in protections rather than leaving it to the consumer.
"If you're buying a car seat for a new baby, you go into the store and buy a product off a shelf knowing that it will be safe for use - we don't see the same thing with digital products," she told ABC TV on Monday.
"What we want to do is move towards a world where citizens are not the ones who are having to think about and protect themselves from the cyber threat."
Ms O'Neil said the government needed to play a more significant role and work with the private sector to ensure vulnerable businesses that may not have the resources to protect themselves are shielded.
She said the feedback from Australians and small businesses was that they felt vulnerable and panicked trying to navigate cybersecurity.
"At the end of the day, we are not going to fix cyber responsibility by helping everyone put two-factor authentication on all of their accounts," she said,
"What we need to do as a country is push responsibility to government, to industry, to providers of products to make sure that they're meeting their obligations."
Ms O'Neil will address a cybersecurity conference on Monday.
