Five Australians have been arrested as part of a worldwide sting that took down a cybercrime platform acting as a “one-stop-shop” for phishing. Authorities from around the world teamed up to target LabHost, a cybercrime platform that offered users a “phishing kit” for a price, allowing them to steal the personal details and money of… Read more »
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 »
Fred again.., one of electronic music’s hottest artists, secretly arrived in Australia on February 27. In true Fred again.. fashion, that very same day, he announced a raft of shows in arena-sized venues across Sydney, Melbourne, and the Gold Coast. According to multiple sources, this amounts to over 100,000 tickets for shows in the coming… Read more »
Cyber-skulduggery is becoming the bane of modern life. Australia’s prime minister has called it a “scourge”, and he is correct. In 2022–23, nearly 94,000 cyber crimes were reported in Australia, up 23% on the previous year. In the latest high-profile attack, around 15,000 customers of alcohol retailer Dan Murphy, Mexican restaurant chain Guzman y Gomez,… Read more »
After lengthy deliberation, the Australian government has released its 2023–2030 Cyber Security Strategy, which aims to make Australia one of the most cyber-secure nations in the world by 2030. It’s a worthy goal, considering Australia was ranked as the fifth-most powerful cyber nation in a 2022 report by Harvard University’s Kennedy School. The strategy outlines… Read more »
A serious cyberattack has disrupted operations at several of Australia’s largest ports, causing delays and congestion. Late on Friday, port operator DP World detected an IT breach that affected critical systems used to coordinate shipping activity. DP World is one of Australia’s largest port operators, handling approximately 40% of the nation’s container trade across terminals… 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 »
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 »
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 »
A National Anti-Scams Centre will be up and running by July under a $58 million federal budget commitment. Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones revealed details of the new centre on Monday, saying it will sit within the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and act as a central place to report scams and share information with… 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 »
The lessons from Uber, Ola and rideshare’s disruption is that in the end, the consumer still pays 
Unicorn dehorned: Nasdaq-listed Brisbane EV charging venture Tritium collapses into receivership 
Here are the finalists in Fintech Australia’s 2024 Finnies awards 
‘Have I gone too far?’ How founders can beat their startup demons 
Daily startup news and insights, delivered to your inbox.
