Insight on how cyber risk is being mitigated and managed across the globe.
By Cameron Abbott and Allison Wallace
Smart home devices like the Google Home and Amazon Echo were popular gifts this past Christmas – just like Fitbits have been the Christmases past.
But could these smart devices that we rely on to seek out and relay information to us, turn on our favourite music, or count our calories and steps, be used to produce evidence against us, if we were to commit a crime? Read More
By Cameron Abbott and Allison Wallace
Since the introduction of self-serve checkouts in Australian supermarkets nearly ten years ago, customers have been engaging in the simplest of hacks to outsmart the supermarket technology. Mum and Dad cyber criminals? Not so much– mostly it is just by putting through more expensive items as much cheaper ones (think a kilo of lemons as a kilo of potatoes).
But thanks to an Aussie start-up, new AI technology will put an end to customer’s criminal careers. Read More
By Cameron Abbott and Harry Crawford
The NSW Government’s vulnerability to hacking has been exposed in a report by state’s auditor-general, in which it was revealed that one government agency took 49 days to shut down a hack.
This hack started with an email account of the unnamed agency being compromised and used to send out “phishing” emails to get the credentials of finance staff members. By day 20, 300 staff had clicked on the bogus link in the phishing email. 200 email accounts ended up being under the control of the hackers.
By Cameron Abbott, Keely O’Dowd, Giles Whittaker and Harry Crawford
As promised in a previous blog post, K&L Gates have performed an in-depth analysis of the risks of relying on de-identification of data to protect privacy, in the wake of researchers successfully re-identifying de-identified medical data that was released by the Australian Department of Health in 2016.
Read the article on the K&L Gates HUB here.
By Cameron Abbott and Keely O’Dowd
A study by Accenture and Ponemon Institute – Cost of Cyber Crime Study: Insights on the security investments that make a difference – found cyberattacks cost financial service firms more to address and contain than in any other industry. The rate of breaches in the industry has tripled in the past five years. On average, the cost of cybercrime for financial services companies globally has increased by more than 40% over the past three years, from $12.97 million per firm in 2014 to $18.28 million in 2017.
By Cameron Abbott and Samantha Tyrrell
Not even Tesla is immune to digital security breaches according to a recent report published by RedLock. The cloud security firm discovered that intruders were able to access and exploit Tesla’s public cloud system to mine cryptocurrencies, a scheme – which due to its surge in popularity – is now better known as cryptojacking. A recent string of similar incidents has demonstrated that hackers are shifting their focus away from siphoning data to siphoning cloud resources instead.
The notifiable data breach scheme, as outlined in the Privacy Amendment (Notifiable Data Breaches) Act 2017 (Cth), commenced yesterday, 22 February. Under this new scheme, in the event an organisation experiences a data breach that is likely to result in serious harm to any individual, that organisation will be required to notify the Australian Information Commissioner and any affected individual(s) of the breach. This 60 second video will help you prepare your organisation for these changes.
By Cameron Abbott and Samantha Tyrrell
McAfee, a cybersecurity company, reported that organisations associated with the Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games suffered security breaches as part of a hacking campaign in January. In a second chapter to this story, organisers have recently confirmed that Olympic servers were the subject of a cyberattack during the opening ceremony last Friday.
By Cameron Abbott and Harry Crawford
No matter how much you spend on cybersecurity technology, data breaches can occur in the most basic ways, for example by leaving an old filing cabinet lying around. This demonstrates the need for a holistic approach to information security.
Recently, highly confidential government papers were discovered inside two locked filing cabinets that were purchased at a second-hand furniture shop in Canberra. What likely happened was a public servant overseeing an office clean up unwittingly sold the filing cabinets containing state secrets to the furniture shop.
By Cameron Abbott and Samantha Tyrrell
Facebook has always been confronted with privacy-related scrutiny, including being the respondent in the proceedings that ultimately brought down the EU-US privacy shield. On 28 January 2018, Facebook revealed its “privacy principles” to users for the first time. Via a series of educational videos and a ‘Privacy Check Up’ function, Facebook has shared the core principles it uses to guide its approach to privacy. Facebook will also roll out a new hub which will allow users to more easily control their privacy settings.
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