Security News
The New South Wales digital driver's license has multiple implementation flaws that allow for easy forgeries. A 4-digit application PIN is the encryption password used to protect or encrypt the licence data.
Nations running online foreign influence campaigns have turned to dating apps to recruit people privy to sensitive information, according to the director general of the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation, the nation's security agency directed against external threats and a key partner in the Five Eyes security alliance. "In the last two years, thousands of Australians with access to sensitive information have been targeted by foreign spies using social media profiles," revealed ASIO supremo Mike Burgess during his third annual threat assessment address on Wednesday.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison's WeChat account has been taken over by entities that have rebranded it "Australian Chinese new life" and used the account to offer advice on living in Australia for the nation's Chinese community. Morrison, leader of the right-of-centre Liberal Party of Australia, has used Tencent-owned WeChat as a campaigning tool to reach Australia's sizable Chinese community - many of whom are concentrated in particular seats and are therefore considered a sought-after voting bloc.
The Australian Cyber Security Centre says Conti ransomware attacks have targeted multiple Australian organizations from various industry verticals since November. "The ACSC is aware of multiple instances of Australian organisations that have been impacted by Conti ransomware in November and December 2021.".
The South Australian government has disclosed that the sensitive personal information belonging to tens of thousands of its employees was compromised following a ransomware attack that hit the system of an external payroll software provider last month. The breached company behind this data breach is Frontier Software, which suffered from a ransomware attack on November 13, 2021.
Personal information describing names, addresses, bank account details, and taxation IDs of 38,000 Australian government employees has been leaked to the dark web after a ransomware attack. Frontier had previously advised that the attack had been deflected and customer data was safe.
The Australian Cyber Security Centre warns of an increase of LockBit 2.0 ransomware attacks against Australian organizations starting July 2021. "ACSC has observed an increase in reporting of LockBit 2.0 ransomware incidents in Australia," Australia's cybersecurity agency said in a security alert issued on Thursday.
Julian Assange will remain in a British prison for now after the US government won permission to appeal against a January court ruling that freed him from extradition to America. News of the appeal came as the US Department of Justice offered Assange a deal that would keep him out of the notoriously cruel US supermax prisons, according to The Times.
The Australian Federal Police has revealed it was able to decrypt messages sent on a supposedly secure messaging app that was seeded into the criminal underworld and promoted as providing snoop-proof comms. Europol and the FBI will detail their use of the app in the coming hours.
Australia's Federal Police is getting more help from some very good boys with four paws, wagging tails, and the ability to sniff out tech equipment with their highly sensitive noses. The dogs can sniff out things like USB sticks or SIM cards, a task difficult for humans seeing as the devices are small and easily hidden.