Cybersecurity – Page 4 – Cyber Law Watch

Australia’s international cyber strategy pivots towards critical technology in neighboring countries

May 02 2021

By Cameron Abbott, Michelle Aggromito, Jacqueline Patishman and Emily Gamaroff

In a bid to maintain stability in the Indo-Pacific region, Australia has pledged $37.5 million to bolster the security and development of critical technology in neighboring countries as part of its updated International Cyber Engagement Strategy. The funding aims to promote the resilience of critical technologies in Southeast Asia and to support Australia’s Pacific neighbours by improving online safety, counter misinformation and to fight cybercrime.

Nov 02 2020

By Cameron Abbott, Keely O’Dowd and Max Evans

Back in February, we blogged about the large scale ransomware attack experienced by Toll Group.

IT News reports Toll is still “mopping up” the damage caused by these attacks. Since July, Toll has embarked on a year-long accelerated cyber resilience program incorporating teams in India and Australia which led to the appointment of former Telstra Asia Pacific CISO Berin Lautenbach as Toll’s global head of information security in August.

Oct 27 2020

By Cameron Abbott and Keely O’Dowd

Patients of a Finnish psychotherapy centre have become the victims of a blackmail campaign after the centre suffered a data breach. It is reported, the centre’s data was stolen during two attacks, one occurring in November 2018 and the other between the end of November 2018 and March 2019.

A cyber criminal (or criminals) has used the stolen data to contact patients demanding the payment of 200 euros in bitcoin, with this amount increasing to 500 euros if the patient refused to pay within 24 hours. If a patient refused to pay the ransom, the cyber criminal threatened to publish their personal information, including notes from therapy sessions. Around 300 records have been published on the dark web, which suggests patients are refusing to pay the ransom. The centre also received a ransom demand of 500,000 euros for the return of their data, which it has refused to pay.

Oct 19 2020

By Cameron Abbott and Rebecca Gill

The UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has fined British Airways £20 million, the ICO’s largest fine to date, for failing to protect the personal and financial details of more than 400,000 of its customers.

In a statement published online on 16 October 2020, the ICO stated that its investigation had found that British Airways was “processing a significant amount of personal data without adequate security measures in place”. This failure is said to have breached data protection laws and, subsequently, the airline was the subject of a cyberattack in 2018, which was not detected for more than two months.

Sep 16 2020

By Cameron Abbott and Keely O’Dowd

The adoption of cloud based solutions offer many advantages to businesses, such as cost savings, efficiencies and flexibility. Cloud based solutions can also improve data security as cloud providers will be tasked with monitoring the security of their solutions, updating software and improving security features as required.

However, adopting a cloud based solution will not automatically reduce an organisation’s exposure to cyber risks. Care must be taken before procuring a cloud based solution and any solution must be properly assessed from a security perspective.

Aug 20 2020

By Cameron Abbott, Keely O’Dowd and Rebecca Gill

In July this year, we blogged about the Australian Government’s plan to release Australia’s Cyber Security Strategy (Strategy). On 6 August 2020, the Strategy was released after consultation with the public and industry actors.

The Strategy will invest $1.67 billion over the next 10 years – the largest ever financial commitment to cyber security – to create a more secure online world for Australians, our businesses and the essential services which we depend upon. This will be achieved through the following:

Jul 24 2020

By Cameron Abbott and Keely O’Dowd

The Australian Government is currently developing its next Cyber Security Strategy, which is scheduled for release in the coming months.

The Australian Government 2020 Cyber Security Strategy Industry Advisory Panel has released a report consisting of 60 recommendations to inform the 2020 Cyber Security Strategy. The Panel’s 60 recommendations are structured around five key pillars:

Jul 10 2020

By Cameron Abbott and Keely O’Dowd

Intelligence experts KELA recently announced that almost 500,000 customer records of different car suppliers were being offered for sale on the dark web by hacking group “KelvinSecurity Team”.

According to reports, almost 400,000 UK based BMW customers’ data is being sold on the online black market. This data includes the initials and surnames of car owners, home addresses, email addresses, the names of dealerships and car-registration information. The data of Mercedes, SEAT, Honda and Hyundai car owners also form part of the compromised customer records.

Jul 07 2020

By Cameron Abbott, Warwick Andersen, Rob Pulham and Rebecca Gill

In some positive news about the Federal Government’s COVIDSafe app, the University of Adelaide’s cybersecurity experts have assessed the Australian contact tracing app to be one of the best and safest among 34 apps used globally to track and trace COVID-19 cases.

A team from the University’s School of Computer Science made the judgment in a study which assessed Android versions of 34 of the world’s COVID-19 contact tracing apps for security and privacy vulnerabilities.

Jun 21 2020

By Cameron Abbott, Michelle Aggromito and Rebecca Gill

In what could only be adding fuel to the fire that is the growing concern over Zoom’s privacy and data security risks, it has been reported that over 500,000 Zoom accounts were sold on the dark web and hacker forums earlier in April. The accounts were purchased by cybersecurity firm Cyble after it noticed free Zoom accounts were being posted on hacker forums.

Cyble was able to purchase approximately 530,000 Zoom credentials, which included a user’s email address, password, personal meeting URL, and their HostKey (a six-digit number used to host meetings on Zoom). Victims included well-known companies such as Chase, Citibank and educational institutions including the University of Colorado and the University of Florida. According to Cyble, credentials belonging to its clients in the bulk purchase were also confirmed to be correct.

Tag:Cybersecurity

Australia’s international cyber strategy pivots towards critical technology in neighboring countries

Continuing to take its Toll: Toll Group still feeling impacts nine months after experiencing Ransomware Attack

Therapy clients become targets of blackmail campaign

From voluntary action and collaboration to legislation and classified capabilities: Australia’s Cyber Security Strategy 2020 released

Update: Australia’s 2020 Cyber Security Strategy

500,000 car owner records found on dark web

“The best of its kind anywhere in the world today”: COVIDSafe among the safest tracing apps globally, study finds

Credential stuffing during COVID-19: Cybersecurity firm purchased over 500,000 Zoom account credentials on the dark web and hacker forums