Category Archives: Cybercrime

Australia news live: household assistance on energy bills to be detailed in budget, Chalmers says

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Treasurer says volatility in the global economy to have ‘flow-on effect on budget’. Follow the day’s news live

The shadow minister for foreign affairs, Simon Birmingham, is chastising the PM for letting there be any doubt whether he will be attending the Nato security summit.

Bangarra Dance Theatre supports voting ‘Yes’ in voice referendum

For over three decades, Bangarra Dance Theatre has been privileged to be entrusted with sharing the powerful voices of the world’s oldest living cultures – the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures of this nation.

The stories we tell have awakened a national consciousness to the deep scars of our colonial history, and the legacy of unseen trauma left in its wake. We attend to this knowing that by carrying Story, we also carry a responsibility to give insight into our experiences, promote understanding, and effect change. But is this enough?

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Australians report record $3.1bn losses to scams, with real amount even higher, ACCC says

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Investment fraud amounts for biggest share at $1.5bn, followed by remote access and payment redirection rorts

Australians lost a record amount of more than $3.1bn to scams in 2022, up from the $2bn lost in 2021, a new report from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has revealed.

The Targeting Scams report, which compiles data from Scamwatch, ReportCyber, major banks and money remitters, was based on an analysis of more than 500,000 reports.

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Coles confirms its customers impacted by Latitude Financial data breach

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Supermarket giant says it is disappointed after being informed that historical customer credit card details have been stolen by hackers

Coles Financial Services has expressed its disappointment after being alerted that historical customer credit card details were stolen in the Latitude data breach.

Coles credit card holders’ personal details are the latest to be identified in around 14 million customer records compromised in the hack.

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Jack Teixeira, suspect in Pentagon leaks, charged under Espionage Act

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Government to seek 10 years on each of two charges, says prosecutor in Boston court

Jack Teixeira, the air national guardsman arrested on suspicion of leaking hundreds of secret defence documents, has been charged in a Boston court on two counts under the Espionage Act as Washington reeled from the fallout of the worst leaks of US intelligence in at least a decade.

The clean-cut 21-year-old was brought into court in a beige jumpsuit, and his handcuffs were removed by a bailiff. He sat quietly, turning only once to three family members to smile weakly.

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Jack Teixeira to appear in court accused of Pentagon leaks

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Former IT specialist, 21, arrested on Thursday is accused of intelligence leak believed to have started on Discord

The 21-year-old suspect in the recent leaks of Pentagon intelligence is due to appear in court on Friday.

Jack Teixeira was detained at his home by FBI agents, the US attorney general Merrick Garland announced on Thursday. The arrest was made “in connection with an investigation into an alleged unauthorised removal, retention and transmission of classified national defence information”, he said.

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Tasmanian data breach: schoolchildren’s information among 16,000 documents leaked on dark web

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Minister confirms education department documents breached after third-party file transfer service was hacked

Hackers have released 16,000 Tasmanian education department documents on the dark web including schoolchildren’s personal information, the state government has confirmed.

The state’s science and technology minister, Madeleine Ogilvie, on Friday said thousands of financial statements and invoices containing names and addresses of school students and their parents had been released after the third-party file transfer service GoAnywhere MFT was hacked.

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AI chatbots making it harder to spot phishing emails, say experts

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Poor spelling and grammar that can help identify fraudulent attacks being rectified by artificial intelligence

Chatbots are taking away a key line of defence against fraudulent phishing emails by removing glaring grammatical and spelling errors, according to experts.

Phishing emails are a well-known weapon of cybercriminals and fool recipients into clicking on a link that downloads malicious software or tricks them into handing over personal details such as passwords or pin numbers.

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Latitude Financial faces possible class action after millions affected by data breach

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Cyber-attack in which information of 14 million customers has been exposed dubbed Australia’s largest to date

Latitude Financial Services could face a class action lawsuit from some of the 14 million customers who have had their personal information exposed in what has been dubbed Australia’s largest data breach.

Law firms Gordon Legal and Hayden Stephens and Associates announced on Tuesday they would investigate a potential legal action against Latitude over the breach.

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Ransomware attack on US Marshals compromises sensitive information

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Federal agency best known for tracking down fugitives suffered security breach on 17 February

The US Marshals service fell victim to a ransomware security breach this month that compromised sensitive law enforcement information, a spokesperson said on Monday.

The federal agency which is perhaps best known for its work in tracking down and capturing fugitives wanted by law enforcement notified the US government of the breach, and agents there began a forensic investigation, the chief of the Marshals’ public affairs office, Drew Wade, told Reuters in a statement.

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‘They bleed you dry’: the recruitment scammers preying on Australian job seekers

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As cybercriminals increasingly target the job market, antipoverty advocates say punitive welfare rules leave job seekers particularly vulnerable

“I can’t stop kicking myself,” Rose* says.

The 51-year-old has just lost $10,000 to scammers – a life-changing amount for the mother of three.

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Australia should force banks to repay scam victims and adopt better protections, advocates say

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Calls for federal government to mandate the checking of account details before money transfers are made

The federal government should take action to force banks to reimburse scam victims and check the account details match up on transactions to stop scams before the money is lost, consumer rights advocates say.

The call comes as Australia’s big four banks pushed back on mandatory reimbursements, arguing they could “inadvertently lead to increases in scam activity” and that customers should keep themselves safe.

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Darktrace boss defends UK cybersecurity firm amid short-seller attacks

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Embattled firm to launch £75m share buyback to bolster stock price after criticism of sales and marketing

The chief executive of Darktrace has launched a staunch defence of the embattled cybersecurity company saying it is run with the “greatest integrity”, after allegations of irregular sales, marketing and accounting practices raised by a US-based hedge fund.

Poppy Gustafsson published a 1,200 word defence of the company she co-founded in 2013, after its share price collapsed to a record low after the publication of a highly critical 70-page report by New York-based Quintessential Capital Management (QCM) on Tuesday.

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MP calls for action on crime in ‘under siege’ town – as it happened

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This blog is now closed

Pearson urges voice dissenters to ‘be smart’

Karvelas also asks Pearson about the concerns that are coming from the left, including Indigenous affairs spokesperson for the Greens, Lidia Thorpe, who will be calling for treaty before voice at the Invasion Day rally.

And when you have a breakthrough response, a breakthrough response like constitutional recognition, you’ve got to grab it. You’ve got to switch from protest to grabbing the opportunity.

… And I believe that a full response to the Uluru statement will achieve actual real reconciliation. We’re at a point in our history where the protest has achieved the result we desire. And, and so we’ve got to be smart about it.

This this year is the most important here in the past 235. That’s my assertion. This is the most important year and and this referendum is the most important question concerning Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians since the first fleet.

We’ve got to understand what is at stake, and that is the chance for reconciliation and if the referendum is kiboshed through game play and spoiling game by the opposition, we will lose the opportunity forever.

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Royal Mail ransomware attackers threaten to publish stolen data

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Postal service has been unable to send letters and parcels overseas since Wednesday due to hacking

Royal Mail has been hit by a ransomware attack by a criminal group, which has threatened to publish the stolen information online.

The postal service has received a ransom note purporting to be from LockBit, a hacker group widely thought to have close links to Russia.

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Password app LastPass hit by cybersecurity breach but says data remains safe

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Company says its security system prevented the hacker accessing customer data or encrypted passwords

Password manager LastPass has told customers that some of their information has been accessed in a cybersecurity breach, but says passwords remain safe.

LastPass is one of several password managers in the market that aims to reduce the reuse of passwords online, by storing themin a single app. It also makes it easier for users to generate strong passwords as required.

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Medibank hackers announce ‘case closed’ and dump huge data file on dark web

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The size of the data file suggests it may be the full trove of hundreds of thousands of customers’ private records that were stolen from the health insurer

The cybercriminals behind the Medibank cyber-attack have posted on the dark web what appears to be the remainder of what customer data they took from the health insurer, stating it is “case closed” for the hack.

On Thursday morning, the blog – which returned online after several days of being offline last week – posted “Happy Cyber Security Day!!! Added folder full. Case closed.” and included a file that has several compressed files amounting to over 5GB.

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Vanuatu officials turn to phone books and typewriters, one month after cyber attack

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Government websites and email still offline, leading to delays in payments and services across the country

One month after a cyber-attack brought down government servers and websites in Vanuatu, frustrated officials were still using private Gmail accounts, personal laptops, pen and paper, and typewriters to run the government of the prime minister, Ishmael Kalsakau, who came into office just a few days after the crash.

The malware attack on state networks has caused delays in communication and coordination in the Pacific island nation of 314,000 people and 80 islands.

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Gangs of cybercriminals are expanding across Africa, investigators say

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Online scams such as banking and credit card fraud are the most prevalent cyberthreat, say Interpol

Police and investigators fear organised gangs of fraudsters are expanding across sub-Saharan Africa, exploiting new opportunities as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and the global economic crisis to make huge sums with little risk of being caught.

The growth will have a direct impact on the rest of the world, where many victims of “hugely lucrative” fraud live, senior police officials have said.

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Medibank hackers release 1,500 more patient records on dark web, including mental health data

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Company says leak includes details on chronic conditions such as heart disease and people with cancer and dementia

Russian cybercriminals have released a fifth tranche of stolen data from the private health insurer Medibank, including the details of treatment for mental health.

The company’s chief executive, David Koczkar, on Sunday confirmed the hackers, who obtained the records of millions of current and former customers in a ransomware attack last month, had released the details on the dark web.

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Australian special forces member allegedly stole and published personal data of intelligence official

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ADF is investigating alleged theft and use of cybertools to hack private accounts of Australian serving with overseas intelligence organisation

An Australian serving within a military intelligence organisation of a Five Eyes ally has allegedly had his personal data stolen from within the Australian Defence Force’s secure personnel system and posted online.

Australia’s joint military police unit is investigating an allegation that a serving member of Australia’s special forces unlawfully accessed the data of the intelligence official and posted personal and sensitive data in an online location accessible to the public.

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