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.
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.
When employee data does fall within the legal privacy net
By Cameron Abbott, Warwick Andersen and Georgia Mills
PageUp, a leading HR software support company has revealed it has fallen victim to a massive data breach, potentially compromising the personal details of thousands of Australians. Boasting over 2 million active users worldwide and counting a roll call of major Australian companies together with a number of government agencies as clients, the breach may be the largest since the introduction of mandatory data breach notification laws in February (which we blogged about here).
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.
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.
Cost of cybercrime hits a new high according to the ACCC’s Scamwatch Report
By Cameron Abbott and Giles Whittaker
Australians are suffering more than ever to various cyber scams, with the ACCC’s ninth annual Targeting Scams Report confirming the ACCC received more than 200,000 scam reports costing a total of roughly $340 million during 2017, a $40 million increase from 2016. Whilst this increase is attributed to a variety of different cyber scams, including investment scams which totalled $64 million, an increase of more than 8%, the second largest contributor to the $340 million total losses was from dating and romance scams which amounted to $42 million. The search for love clearly has its costs. With the average loss suffered per victim totalling $6500, these losses are not inconsequential and continue to push cybersecurity into the forefront of both individuals and businesses daily activities.
Politicians accused of stealing data?
By Cameron Abbott and Sarah Goegan
No it’s not Chinese or Russian hackers trying to influence elections. A candidate in the Ontario province elections in Canada has resigned following allegations he may have stolen data from his former employer to further his party’s campaign.
Another Facebook app leaves anonymised data of 3 million users potentially exposed
By Cameron Abbott and Keely O’Dowd
Recent news reports have revealed that Facebook has been hit with another data scandal.
The anonymised data of approximately 3 million Facebook users has reportedly been published on a poorly protected website. This data was originally collected via a Facebook quiz app called “myPersonality”. The myPersonality app was developed as part of the “myPersonality project” run by academics at the University of Cambridge’s The Psychometrics Centre.
Family Planning NSW the latest victim of cyber attacks
By Cameron Abbott and Allison Wallace
Up to 8000 clients of Family Planning New South Wales have been affected by a ransomware attack on the NGO’s website. No the sort of records people every want to see disclosed.
The website was hacked on ANZAC Day, with the personal information of clients who had contacted FPNSW in the past 2 and a half years compromised – including details such as names, contact details and reasons for enquiries.