Security News
A tech-support scammer making random phone calls in the hope of finding a victim called the cyber-crime squad of an Australian police force, which used the happy accident to document the con trick and inform the public on what to watch out for. The call was placed to the Financial and Cybercrime Investigation Branch in the state of South Australia, where the cops serve 1.75 million citizens.
Australia's government has proposed giving itself the power to take over private enterprises' response to cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure. The government proposes to develop baselines that critical industries can use to help them meet their obligations.
Australia's consumer watchdog launched court action against Google on Monday alleging the technology giant misled account holders about its use of their personal data. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's action in the Federal Court is the latest litigation Google has faced around the world over allegations of privacy breaches.
Australian beverage company Lion says it has found no evidence that hackers have stolen information from its systems, but the hackers claim they have and are threatening to leak it unless the company pays up. While Lion has not shared any technical information about the attack or the ransomware, the operators of the ransomware known as Sodinokibi and REvil claim to have breached the company's systems.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has called a snap press conference to reveal that the nation is under cyber-attack by a state-based actor, but the nation's infosec advice agency says that while the attacker has gained access to some systems it has not conducted "Any disruptive or destructive activities within victim environments." Morrison said the attack has targeted government, key infrastructure and the private sector, and was sufficiently serious that he took the courteous-in-a-crisis, but not-compulsory step, of informing the leader of the opposition about the incident.
Australian beverages company Lion reported this week that its systems have been infected with a piece of ransomware that caused disruptions to manufacturing processes and customer service. The company revealed on June 9 that it had shut down its IT systems as a result of a "Cyber incident," causing disruption to customers and suppliers.
Australian brewery Lion has suspended production, threatening the flow of beer across the continent-country, after a now confirmed* cyber attack struck down its IT systems. Lion brews southern hemisphere brands including Speights, Steinlager, Lion Red and Brown as well as international brands comprising Guinness, Becks, Corona and Budweiser.
Australian steel producer BlueScope was recently hit by a cyberattack that caused disruptions to some of the company's operations. While BlueScope did not share any information about the type of attack, iTnews reported that the company was hit by ransomware and that it was working to restore systems from backups.
Australian shipping giant Toll informed customers on Tuesday that it has shut down some IT systems after discovering a piece of ransomware. Toll said it discovered the ransomware after seeing unusual activity on some servers.
The design of Australia's COVIDSafe contact-tracing app creates some unintended surveillance opportunities, according to a group of four security pros who unpacked its. The first-addressed is the decision to change UniqueIDs - the identifier the app shares with other users - once every two hours and for devices to only accept a new UniqueID if the app is running.