Former MasterChef contestant falls victim to online fraud attack
By Cameron Abbott and Keely O’Dowd
Last week, reports in the media revealed former MasterChef contestant, Dani Venn was the unfortunate victim of a conveyancing hacker attack.
Research reports say risks to smartphone security aren’t phoney
By Rob Pulham, Warwick Andersen and Sarah Goegan
Beware! Your favourite apps may be putting your phone and data at risk. Reports from Allot and BitSight have examined rising threats to the security of our mobile devices.
Report savages US Government agencies’ cybersecurity efforts
By Cameron Abbott and Sarah Goegan
You would think government agencies would have a keen focus on cybersecurity risks, but apparently not! A report by the United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has found that nearly three-quarters of Federal agencies reviewed have either “at risk” or “high risk” cybersecurity arrangements. 71 of 96 agencies assessed were either missing, had insufficiently deployed or had significant gaps in their fundamental cybersecurity policies, processes or tools.
Not so happy families: Online genealogy website suffers data breach
By Cameron Abbott, Rob Pulham and Sarah Goegan
Online genealogy platform MyHeritage suffered a major data breach in which email addresses and hashed passwords of over 92 million users were leaked. The data breach occurred in October 2017, but was not discovered until 4 June 2018.
MyHeritage became aware of the breach after a security researcher found a file named “myheritage” on a private server. The file contained all the email addresses of MyHeritage users who signed up through to 26 October 2017, and their hashed passwords.
Proposed anti-terror laws to give law enforcement access to personal data
By Warwick Andersen, Rob Pulham and Sarah Goegan
Last week, the Australian Government announced that it would propose new anti-terror laws that force telecommunications and multinational tech companies to give law enforcement agencies access to encrypted data of suspected criminals and terrorists.
Cyber Security Minister Angus Taylor said the laws would give police, intelligence and security agencies the ability to bypass encryption on messaging (such as private messages sent on Whatsapp and Facebook), phone calls, photos, location and apps.
Aqua-man goes hi-tech – Microsoft’s Plunge into Deep Sea Data Storage
By Cameron Abbott and Georgia Mills
In addition to all things cyber security related, we here at CyberWatch love to see new technologies being developed and Microsoft’s latest data storage project has us all excited.
Microsoft has leveraged the technologies of submarines and renewable energy to plunge an experimental 12 metre long datacentre into the sea near Scotland’s Orkney Islands. The project, known as Project Natick, seeks to understand the benefits and difficulties in deploying subsea datacentres powered by offshore renewable energy.
North Korean cyberattacks increase ahead of summit
By Cameron Abbott and Sarah Goegan
North Korean cyberattack activity appears to have ramped up ahead of the highly anticipated US-North Korea summit, which is expected to take place on 12 June 2018.
North Korean hackers known as Group 123 have been identified as the party responsible for new malware activity targeting users in South Korea.
Chubb’s new personal cyber security coverage
By Cameron Abbott and Georgia Mills
Chubb has recently released a new cyber security insurance coverage for individuals in North America. The product intends to provide greater protection from cyberattacks that lead to extortion and ransomware, financial loss, cyber disruption and breaches of privacy.
Foreign Hackers Take Down Triple Zero Network
By Cameron Abbott and Georgia Mills
The triple zero emergency call service, operated by Telstra, was subjected to an onslaught of more than 1000 offshore calls on Saturday morning, leading to a number of genuine emergency calls being unanswered and sparking a government investigation.
Study reveals massive cost of cybercrime for Asia Pacific businesses
By Cameron Abbott and Sarah Goegan
We all know that cybersecurity incidents can cost your organisation a lot of money, but exactly how much? A report by Frost and Sullivan has found that losses from cyberattacks in the Asia Pacific region (APAC) could reach a staggering US$1.75 trillion, nearly 7 per cent of the region’s gross domestic product in 2017. As covered in our blog last week, the cost of cyber scams alone in Australia totalled $340 million AUD last year.