Paul Haskell-Dowland

Professor Paul Haskell-Dowland is the Professor of Cyber Security Practice and Associate Dean for Computing and Security in the School of Science at Edith Cowan University, Perth, Australia.
Paul has delivered keynotes, invited presentations, workshops, professional development/training and seminars across the world for audiences including RSA Security, ITU and IEEE.
He has more than 20 years of experience in cyber security research and education in both the UK and Australia.

Global tech

No, you didn’t imagine it – Google did crash yesterday, and it’s a reminder of how central it now is to modern life

- August 11, 2022 2 MIN READ

On Wednesday, reports began emerging Google was down. Google down for thousands of users – Downdetector https://t.co/jQYLzHdjNC pic.twitter.com/TIbcYrtImU — Reuters (@Reuters) August 9, 2022 While it has since returned, it once again highlights our dependence on technology service providers and shows how reliant many people are on a single operator for daily functions. There are… Read more »

cat on robot vacuum cleaner
Global tech

Amazon’s $2.45 billion play for iRobot – and a map inside your home – raises privacy questions

- August 10, 2022 4 MIN READ

Less than two weeks after the announcement of its acquisition of US healthcare company One Medical, Amazon is continuing its expansion with a US$1.7 billion offer for iRobot, the manufacturer of Roomba automated vacuum cleaners. The acquisition will bolster Amazon’s line of smart home products and add to the retail giant’s vast store of consumer… Read more »

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Steve Martin & MIchael Caine
Cyber security

Crypto is among 5 big trends in Australians getting scammed

- July 7, 2022 4 MIN READ

Greed, desire, wishful thinking and naivety are lucrative markets for scam artists – and their age-old hustles are increasingly being supplemented by digital chicanery. In 2021 Australians lost an estimated $2 billion to fraudsters, more than double that of 2020, according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. The consumer watchdog’s latest scam report details… Read more »

Cyber security

The Budget’s $10 billion cybersecurity plan is all about making Australia a key ‘offensive’ cyber player

- March 31, 2022 4 MIN READ

In the 2022 federal budget, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg launched a range of vote-winning initiatives – one of which included a breathtaking A$9.9 billion for cyber security over ten years. Bundled under the acronym REDSPICE (which stands for resilience, effects, defence, space, intelligence, cyber and enablers), the program is expected to help build Australia’s intelligence and… Read more »

cyber war
Cyber security

Here’s how Australia could be collateral damage in Russia’s cyber war against Ukraine

- February 28, 2022 4 MIN READ

The Australian Cyber Security Centre is asking organisations and businesses to be on high alert amid Russia’s cyber attack bombardment of Ukraine. The United Kingdom’s National Cyber Security Centre issued a similar warning, as have New Zealand and the United States Department of Homeland Security. The Australian Cyber Security Centre has said it is not… Read more »

503 error, robot
Other tech

The Fastly internet outage: why did so many sites go down — and what is a CDN, anyway?

- June 11, 2021 3 MIN READ

If you were having difficulty accessing your favourite website on Tuesday evening Australian time, you’re not alone. A jaw-dropping number of major websites around the globe suddenly became unavailable with no immediately obvious explanation — before reappearing an hour later. It’s disconcerting when the sites we rely on suddenly become inaccessible, and even more so… Read more »

Global tech

Facebook’s latest data breach: what happened and why it’s hard to know if your data was leaked

- April 7, 2021 4 MIN READ

Over the long weekend reports emerged of an alleged data breach, impacting half a billion Facebook users from 106 countries. And while this figure is staggering, there’s more to the story than 533 million sets of data. This breach once again highlights how many of the systems we use aren’t designed to adequately protect our… Read more »