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Australia

Huawei Chairman: We Don't Know Why Australia Banned Us from the NBN

posted onSeptember 17, 2012
by l33tdawg

Huawei’s representatives are very disappointed because they were banned from participating in the development of Australia’s national broadband network (NBN). Even more so, as officials failed to reveal the reasons behind the decision.

The company’s chairman for Australia, John Lord, revealed his disappointment before a parliamentary committee at the end of last week, The Australian reports.

Hacker fears over Australia's net data plan

posted onSeptember 6, 2012
by l33tdawg

PRIVACY advocates say a government proposal to keep all of Australia's internet and telephone information for two years would create a ''honey pot'' for hackers and criminals.

Victoria's Privacy Commissioner warned a joint parliamentary committee yesterday that civil rights and privacy would never have a chance if governments always put national security above all other rights.

Australia won't back away from data retention plan

posted onSeptember 4, 2012
by l33tdawg

Australia’s Attorney-General Nicola Roxon has re-stated the case for a European-style data retention regime, arguing that there’s no point bringing a knife to a gun fight when it comes to protecting Australia’s interests.

In a speech delivered to the 2012 Security in Government conference in Canberra today, Roxon quickly addressed the argument that it is dangerous for governments to hold a lot of information about their citizens, saying:

Hackers warn Australian government: come clean on surveillance system or face attack

posted onAugust 21, 2012
by l33tdawg

THE hacker movement Anonymous is threatening to renew attacks against the Australian government if it refuses to come clean over its use of a controversial surveillance system.

The Greens communications spokesman Scott Ludlam has tabled questions in parliament on behalf of the party querying the government about the counter-terrorism software TrapWire.

Null Crew hits Aust Institute of Business Brokers

posted onAugust 9, 2012
by l33tdawg

Hackers have broken into a website of the Australian Institute of Business Brokers and published 260 user login credentials on the internet.

The institute, the peak industry body that represents professional business brokers, was unaware of the hack which happened late yesterday. National President Paul Nielson said the members login area did not include financial data.

Kevin Mitnicks warning for Australia

posted onAugust 9, 2012
by l33tdawg

Sony took seven days to inform its 77 million customers that its PlayStation Network had been hacked last year, exposing customer names, addresses, email address, birthdates, user names, passwords and more.

If you thought that was bad, then think again. Hacking performed in the 70s, 80s and early 90s on numerous US firms by one of the world's most infamous computer hackers, Kevin Mitnick, wasn't disclosed publicly by them - even though many knew of the breaches - until Mitnick wrote about the incidents in his tell-all book, Ghost in the Wires, published last year.

Telstra fails basic security checks

posted onJuly 30, 2012
by l33tdawg

Telstra is exposing customers' accounts to unauthorised access by failing to ask for passwords over the phone.

In most cases simply a date of birth and full name is required when customers call the telco. Telstra argues it isn't legally required to check passwords, something which James Turner, a security industry analyst at IBRS, says defeats the purpose of allowing account passwords.

Melbourne IT takes heat for Cold Fusion breach

posted onJuly 26, 2012
by l33tdawg

Melbourne IT has admitted to hosting and operating both the Queensland Government and AAPT servers that suffered breaches this week at the hands of hackers purporting to be from a Anonymous splinter group.

The group Ops Australia took credit for defacing nine Queensland Government websites related to tourism, science and economic development and stealing a 40 GB trove of customer data from corporate ISP AAPT.

AAPT confirms hackers stole customer data

posted onJuly 26, 2012
by l33tdawg

Internet service provider AAPT has confirmed hackers have stolen customer data in a protest against proposed laws which would allow people's web histories to be stored.

AAPT CEO David Yuile told Fairfax Media the security incident occurred at 9:30pm on Wednesday. He says the ISP is investigating the breach and will contact affected customers.