An Australian software developer has accused Australian border authorities of abusing their power to search his phone when returning home from a recent holiday. Taking to Reddit to share his experience with others, the traveller, James, says he has concerns that the Customs Act allows officers at the border to force people to hand over… Read more »
Experts are warning the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) needs to be extremely carefully about how it pursues a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) with fears it could destabilise the economy or create a dystopian nightmare. Central banks around the world are now exploring the evolution of fiat currency through CBDCs in response to the… Read more »
An Australian-made decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO) is hoping to re-shape the music industry for Web3 by giving independent musicians more transparency and control over how they get paid for their art. MODA DAO is a not-for-profit foundation looking to build a modern music ecosystem using blockchain technology. The associated coin MODA landed on distributed exchange… Read more »
Australian computer scientist and self-proclaimed inventor of bitcoin Craig Wright has survived a lawsuit that would have seen him hand over half of a 1.1 million Bitcoin fortune – today worth around $71 billion – to the family of former business partner David Kleiman. Wright was, however, ordered to pay US$100 million in damages to… Read more »
Unchecked technological advancement is destroying our shared reality and sewing severe discord in social democracies, 2021 Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa has warned. Speaking at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s Sydney Dialogue event last week, Ressa – founder of Filipino news site Rappler and the country’s first Nobel Laureate – described what she called… Read more »
Women’s participation in business is in the spotlight today with November 19 marking Women’s Entrepreneurship Day. The global day aims to recognise and support women in business, who continue to be underrepresented as founders. Women’s Entrepreneurship Day was initiated by entrepreneur and humanitarian Wendy Diamond as part of a global movement with an ambitious goal to… Read more »
Google has announced a $1 billion investment in Australia over five years, bringing with it thousands of new jobs, along with ‘digital infrastructure’ to help businesses in the post-COVID recovery period. Prime Minister Scott Morrison amicably shook hands with Google Australia Managing Director, Mel Silva, at Google’s newly-expanded offices in Sydney, less than a year… Read more »
Researchers are working to head off the collapse of cryptocurrency markets that, experts warn, could happen when quantum computers become strong enough to break the encryption underlying Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies – estimated to come by 2035. That timeline represents an existential threat for Bitcoin and its ilk, which rely on mathematical encryption so… Read more »
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) wants to end Google’s reign as the default search engine for Australians, saying its dominance has likely “stifled innovation and reduced consumer choice”. The consumer watchdog released the interim report of its Digital Platform Services Inquiry on Thursday and has taken aim at Google for penning deals to ensure its Search… Read more »
The government is getting ready to hand out $10 million fines for companies mismanaging user information with new legislation targeting social media companies. A draft of the Privacy Legislation Amendment (Enhancing Online Privacy and Other Measures) Bill 2021 – or the Online Privacy Bill for short – was circulated on Monday. The bill aims to… Read more »
The federal government will introduce a new mandatory ransomware reporting scheme as it looks to crackdown on cybercriminals targeting Australians. Sparse details about the scheme were announced alongside the Department of Home Affairs’ Ransomware Action Plan, released on Wednesday, but the government said it will likely affect businesses with an annual turnover greater than $10… Read more »
China has continued its bitcoin crackdown by making all cryptocurrency transactions illegal. The Chinese central bank issued a statement on Saturday, seeking to clarify a joint notice from regulators in May which told financial institutions to step away from all cryptocurrency activity, signalling an end to the country’s involvement in the speculative digital assets. “In recent years, bitcoin and… Read more »
Complaints about telecommunications providers declined last year for the third year in a row – but a surge in complaints from small businesses suggests that Australia’s telecommunications providers are still falling short of their promises of improved customer service. Phone and Internet-related complaints declined 6.1% during the 2020-21 financial year, according to the Telecommunications Industry… Read more »
The volume of cyber security attacks has grown so much during the COVID-19 pandemic that victims were lodging a new cybercrime report every 8 minutes, the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) reported, as it launched its latest annual report into Australian cybercrime. With over 67,500 reports of cybercrime received during the 2020-21 financial year, the ACSC… Read more »
Australia continues to be an easy target for ransomware groups who profit from poor corporate accountability and a culture of secrecy. The number of ransomware incidents affecting local organisations increased by 24 per cent in the first six months of 2021, according to data from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s (OAIC) latest notifiable data breaches report. Unfortunately,… Read more »
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