By Rob Pulham, Warwick Andersen and Sarah Goegan
Beware! Your favourite apps may be putting your phone and data at risk. Reports from Allot and BitSight have examined rising threats to the security of our mobile devices.
By Cameron Abbott and Sarah Goegan
You would think government agencies would have a keen focus on cybersecurity risks, but apparently not! A report by the United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has found that nearly three-quarters of Federal agencies reviewed have either “at risk” or “high risk” cybersecurity arrangements. 71 of 96 agencies assessed were either missing, had insufficiently deployed or had significant gaps in their fundamental cybersecurity policies, processes or tools.
Warwick Andersen, Rob Pulham and Georgia Mills
Digital Rights Watch, an organisation with the aim of upholding digital rights, yesterday released its State of Digital Rights Report. The Report focuses on and makes recommendations about digital privacy in Australia including metadata retention.
The Report is endorsed by several human rights organisations, including the Australian Privacy Foundation, Australian Lawyers for Human Rights, Amnesty International Australia, the Human Rights Law Centre and Save the Children Australia.
By Warwick Andersen, Rob Pulham and Keely O’Dowd
Following on from Friday’s blog, we have looked at a particular aspect of the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner’s Notifiable Data Breaches Scheme quarterly report in more detail.
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 Harry Crawford
A recent survey has shown that nearly one-third (29%) of US businesses experienced a data breach in the previous year.
The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company, part of global reinsurer Munich Re, conducted the survey which shows that 8 in 10 affected businesses spent at least $5,000 to respond. 27 percent of the businesses spent between US$5,000 and US$50,000 to respond to the data breach and 30 percent spent between US$50,000 and US$100,000, and a considerable portion spent even more than that. The costs were not only directly financial, with two-thirds of the affected businesses reporting their reputation was negatively impacted.
By Cameron Abbott, Keely O’Dowd and Olivia Coburn
The Federal Parliament’s Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit, tasked with inquiring into the cyber resilience of certain Commonwealth entities has recommended that all such entities adopt a cyber security mitigation strategy called the Essential Eight. The Committee made this recommendation in its Report 467: Cybersecurity Compliance Inquiry based on Auditor-General’s report 42 (2016-17) (Report). Tarantino’s Hateful Eight is perhaps a little more convoluted than these simple touchstones of good practice. The Essential Eight are good reading for all enterprises, not just government agencies.
By Cameron Abbott and Olivia Coburn
RiskIQ, a US-based cyber security company, has reported that 40% of businesses surveyed in the US and the UK have experienced 5 or more significant security incidents in the past 12 months. Significant incidents include malware, targeted attacks, mobile exposures, rogue mobile apps, website or brand abuse, phishing and social impersonation.
RiskIQ, through IDG Connect, also surveyed the confidence of corporate decision-makers in their ability to handle and mitigate cyber threats. Their report, 2017 State of Enterprise Digital Defense Report, reveals that nearly two-thirds of respondents had no to modest confidence in their ability to manage digital threats.
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