Outside the world of open-source software, it’s likely few people would have heard about XZ Utils, a small but widely used tool for data compression in Linux systems. But late last month, security experts uncovered a serious and deliberate flaw that could leave networked Linux computers susceptible to malicious attacks. The flaw has since been… Read more »
On Oct. 6, news broke that 23andMe, the genomics company that collects genetic material from thousands of people for ancestry and genetic predisposition tests, had a massive data breach. But as it turns out, the company’s servers were not hacked. Rather, hackers targeted hundreds of individual user accounts — allegedly those that had repeated passwords.… Read more »
Australian workplace software giant Atlassian is spending US$975 million (A$1.5bn) to acquire seven-year-old US video messaging startup Loom. The deal represents around 2% of Atlassian’s (NASDAQ: TEAM) current market capital of around US$48 billion. But it’s also something of a bargain, with the price less than two-thirds of Loom’s peak valuation of US$1.53 billion in… Read more »
The Smith Family, which helps disadvantaged kids succeed through education, is the latest target of cyber hackers in the wake of attacks on Optus, MediBank and other Australian corporates. The national charity believes the primary motive of the attack was an attempt to steal funds, but the hackers were unsuccessful. However, the personal information of… Read more »
The Australian government is launching an offensive against cybercriminals, following a data breach that has exposed millions of people’s personal information. On November 12, Minister for Cyber Security Clare O’Neil announced a taskforce to “hack the hackers” behind the recent Medibank data breach. The taskforce will be a first-of-its-kind permanent, joint collaboration between Australian Federal… Read more »
Businesses are girding corporate communications teams with cyber security specialists as executives watch the cyber security disasters at Optus and Medibank play out in front of their eyes – and consider how they would manage the public fallout from a similar incident. The impact of the recent spate of breaches is evident at the ANZ… Read more »
New details have emerged on the severity of the Medibank hack, which has now affected all users. Optus, Medibank, Woolworths, and, last Friday, electricity provider Energy Australia are all now among the household names that have fallen victim to a data breach. If it seems like barely a week goes by without news of another… Read more »
Medibank has reported a “distressing development” regarding its unfolding cyber incident, as “a series of additional files” received from a criminal party have been found to include detailed Medibank customer data. The health insurance provider first reported “unusual activity” on its network on 13 October – and it was initially believed no customer data had been removed… Read more »
Shortly after Australian telecommunications company Optus announced the identity data of millions of customers had been stolen, a person claiming to be the hacker announced they would delete the data for US$1 million. When Optus didn’t pay, the purported hacker published 10,000 stolen records and threatened to release ten thousand more every day until the… Read more »
Data exposed includes names, birthdate, phone no. and email ID information such as driver’s licence or passport numbers may also be involved Experts warn to beware of scams in the months head Optus shut it down once it was discovered The personal data of up to nine million Australians may have been been accessed by… Read more »
A hacker pulled off one of the biggest cryptocurrency heists in history by transferring $831 million worth of cryptocurrency off the Poly Network platform, only to start giving the assets back the next day. Poly Network announced the attack on Tuesday night, saying it had been attacked on the Binance Smart Chain, Ethereum, and Polygon… Read more »
The Australian government has accused China’s Ministry of State Security being behind a global hack of Microsoft’s Exchange email system earlier this year. The announcement, released by Foreign Affairs Minister Senator Marise Payne late on Monday night, alongside Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews and Defence Minister Peter Dutton, coincidences with similar findings announced by leading… Read more »
The NSW Department of Education was hit by an apparent cyber attack on Wednesday. In a notice published on Thursday, the department said it took precautionary measures, shutting down many of its systems including the online portal teachers were using in preparation for the new school term. “The timing of this creates considerable challenges for… Read more »
On the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog! These words from Peter Steiner’s famous cartoon could easily be applied to the recent ransomware attack on Florida-based software supplier Kaseya. Kaseya provides software services to thousands of clients around the world. It’s estimated between 800 and 1,500 medium to small businesses may be impacted by the… Read more »
A supply chain attack on Kaseya VSA has caused a mass ransomware event. The attack began with a zero-day vulnerability on Kaseya VSA, a remote monitoring and management tool, which spread to managed service providers (MSPs) and some of their customers. Kaseya, a US-based software company, issued its first warning about the incident on Friday… Read more »
‘Have I gone too far?’ How founders can beat their startup demons 
Smart hotels get even smarter: 72 Byte to launch in Australia with AI expert backing 
Why the $2.43 billion Canva share sale is an epic moment for Australian tech 
Eucalyptus head of growth Matt Rossi departs to launch his own marketing startup, Oodle 
Daily startup news and insights, delivered to your inbox.
