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 »
Microsoft is looking to sure up its position in its battle against AWS, partnering with the Australian government to improve cybersecurity as part of $5 billion spend over the next two years on cloud computing and artificial intelligence infrastructure. The capital expenditure was announced by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the Australian Embassy in… Read more »
Sydney startup Apollo Secure, which focused on helping small business deal with the complexities of cybersecurity, has raised $600,000 in pre-Seed funding. The round was by 24 investors from Sydney Angels with support from Brisbane Angels and a consortium of investors from Angel Loop. Apollo Secure is an automated platform for startups and SMEs to… Read more »
Sydney-founded cloud security startup Kivera has raised $5.1 million in a fresh seed round from US and Canadian investors as it looks to deep its roots in the North American market. The raise led by Canada’s Round 13 Capital, an existing backer, and New York cybersecurity investor General Advance. Senior executives from Amazon, Google, Shift5,… Read more »
Be careful who you type your passwords in front of: cyber criminals can figure out which keys you’re pressing simply by getting a carefully trained AI model to listen to you type – and the technique even works over phone calls and Zoom sessions. Documented in a newly published paper, the acoustic side channel attack (ASCA) involves recording… Read more »
The Australian Tax Office (ATO) paid out more than half a billion dollars to cyber criminals between July 2021 and February 2023, according to an ABC report. Most of the payments were for small amounts (less than A$5,000) and were not flagged by the ATO’s own monitoring systems. The fraudsters exploited a weakness in the… Read more »
Sydney cloud-based cybersecurity startup Plerion has raised US$10 million (A$15m) in a Seed round led by Prosus Ventures, a South African-owned, Netherlands-listed global consumer internet investor. The round was supported by US investment firm Cercano and Atlassian Ventures. The funds will be used on accelerated product development, talent acquisition, and go-to-market strategies. Plerion was founded… Read more »
Cybersecurity startup Nullify, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to help software developers and security teams detect and fix potential vulnerabilities in code as it’s being written, has raised $1.1 million in a pre-Seed round led by OIF Ventures. Former XM Cyber founding team Adi Ashkenazy and Zini Shahar, now running the security advisory firm Skylight… Read more »
The federal government has backed AustCyber to launch of the AustCyber Innovation Network to help bolster the sector as it become front and centre of both the political and business response to online threats. The network, part of the Stone & Chalk Group, is designed to nurture commercial relationships, provide thought leadership, and help companies… Read more »
Data strategy veteran Lisa Byrne from Notitia expects to see increased investment in cyber security investment in the federal budget next Tuesday, saying the move is a ‘”no brainer” for the government. Byrne argues it’s critical for small business to be incentivised to implement cyber security systems and upskill their workforce to deal with the… Read more »
Cybersecurity accelerator CyRise, which has programs in Sydney and Melbourne, will close next month after five years. The program has backed 39 startups across Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, India and the US since it launched in 2017, with the backing of British IT services and consulting firm NTT and Deakin University. The program pioneered support… Read more »
The lack of skilled cyber security talent is a bigger challenge for companies in Australia than overseas, according to new research that also found high stress levels and inadequate supporting technologies are causing many workers to bolt after a data breach. Fully 45% of the Australian CISOs surveyed for Trellix’s newly released global study, The… Read more »
As a victim of data breaches from well-known Australian companies, I have come to realise the importance of cybersecurity. It is alarming to see that even after such data breaches, banks and utilities still ask for personal information that is publicly available and already compromised. This makes one wonder if these companies are doing enough… Read more »
Australians lost a record $3.1 billion to financial scammers in 2022. However, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) suggests the real figure is likely much higher, with an estimated 30% of scams going unreported. The findings come from the watchdog’s Targeting Scams report, which combines data from Scamwatch, ReportCyber, the Australian Financial Crimes Exchange… Read more »
Australia has joined other countries in announcing a ban on the use of TikTok on government devices, with some states and territories following suit. The rationale was based on security fears and, in particular, the risk the platform will be used for foreign interference operations by China. TikTok is a video-sharing platform operated by ByteDance,… Read more »
Job-ready sales talent edtech Earlywork banks $1.5 million Seed round 
Airtasker cofounder Jonathan Lui’s proptech app, Soho, banks $750,000 to hit $20 million valuation 
Sweat re-equity: Bikini Body founders Kayla Itsines and Tobi Pearce buy back their fitness app 
Antler Investor Memo Series: Jason Calacanis-backed Stori is democratising game development 
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