By Cameron Abbott and Karla Hodgson
While the FBI won’t be impressed if you pay ransomware demands in order to get your systems or data back after a cyber attack, its updated ransomware guidance contemplates that this might just be the outcome of an attack anyway.
Read MoreBy Cameron Abbott and Max Evans
Earlier this month, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) issued a long-awaited decision with respect to the requirements necessary for entities to satisfy in order to attain the valid consent of a user to the use of cookies to track and analyse his or her personal information.
Read MoreBy Olivia O’Brien, Philip Murray and Kathleen Weston
Just a few months ago, we published an article on the criminalisation of the non-consensual distribution of intimate images in Western Australia. Only this week, there has been a second successful conviction under the Criminal Law Amendment (Intimate Images) Act 2018 (WA) (WA Act) in the Rockingham Magistrate’s Court.
Read MoreBy Cameron Abbott and Max Evans
With the Brexit deadline looming as 31 October 2019, and no finalised deal in place, the prospects of an inconclusive Brexit are growing. Therefore, there remains significant uncertainty as to the actions and preparations of entities who are subject to the unpredictable tides of this political sea. So how should such companies prepare in these circumstances of a foreseeable no-deal? Our colleagues have tackled this challenging question in Volume 1 of The Privacist available at the K&L Gates Hub.
By Cameron Abbott and Rebecca Gill
In light of concerns over how personal data is being used by social media platforms and tech companies, the Commonwealth Government has proposed amendments to the Privacy Act in order to more harshly penalise companies for privacy breaches. The new regime, which aims to update Australia’s privacy laws in line with increased social media use, will see tougher penalties for all entities that are subject to the Privacy Act, not just the headline companies like Google and Facebook.
Read MoreBy Cameron Abbott, Michelle Aggromito and Alyssia Totham
Ransom-based hacking techniques have primarily been limited to the intangible. We live in a world where unauthorised access to email accounts, bank accounts, and computer systems that may otherwise be private is no longer uncommon.
In some situations, hackers demand a lump sum in return for reinstating control of the accounts and systems to its owners and managers, and otherwise refusing to pay this ransom can likely leave our information and data at the mercy of hackers.
Read MoreBy Cameron Abbott, Michelle Aggromito and Alyssia Totham
Until recently, a security vulnerability in the social media platform Instagram, allowed Hyp3r to illicitly harvest millions of Instagram users’ data and track their locations.
In a similar manner to the Cambridge Analytica scandal that plagued Facebook following the 2016 US presidential election, this latest example of Hyp3r’s mass data collection was discovered through a journalistic investigation and was not uncovered by the social media platform.
Read MoreBy Cameron Abbott and Karla Hodgson
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner has released its Q2 statistics on notifications received under the Notifiable Data Breach (NDB) scheme. The 245 breach notifications in Q2 are on par with each other quarter since the scheme was introduced in July 2018 and while the majority of NDBs (62%) are attributed to malicious or criminal attacks, we noted with interest that a staggering 34% are due to human error – that is, mostly avoidable errors made by staff. A consistent theme of our blogs is reinforcing the message that employees are the front line of defence for organisations.
There are 3 key statistics we took away from these human error NDBs.
Read MoreBy Cameron Abbott and Allison Wallace
In the latest installment of this seemingly ongoing tale, Google uncovered (for the second time in a month) security flaws in Apple’s iOS, which put thousands of users at risk of inadvertently installing spyware on their iPhones. For two years.
Read MoreBy Cameron Abbott, Michelle Aggromito and Alyssia Totham
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is taking on Australia’s largest online health marketplace, HealthEngine. In return for a fee, HealthEngine provided without adequate disclosure, patient information to nine private health insurance brokers.
The MedTech platform functions as an online booking service for many health care providers Australia-wide. During the booking process, HealthEngine would ask users two additional questions. Firstly, they would ask if the user had private health insurance. Secondly, they would ask if the user would like to be contacted with health insurance comparison information. By clicking ‘Yes’ to the second question, users had their personal information transferred to health insurance brokers. This information comprised the user’s name, contact details, date of birth and private health care status.
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