Tag:Report

1
Trust but verify: Independent report on Australia’s “anti-encryption” legislation released
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Human error accounts for 34% of Notifiable Data Breaches – 3 key take outs from the latest OAIC report
3
Cyber diligence: Study reveals cybersecurity concerns are becoming a critical factor in M&A due diligence
4
Privacy Awareness Week (Personal Data): technology suspicion – consumer concerns surrounding voice and digital assistants
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Privacy Awareness Week (Health Information): Health sector and the notifiable data breach scheme – 12 months on
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Privacy Awareness Week (Online Privacy): credential stuffing attacks are on the rise in Australia
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Privacy Awareness Week (Data Breaches): Study finds majority of Australian businesses are ill-equipped to handle cybersecurity incidents
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Report finds finance and HR departments the greatest cybersecurity threats to organisations

Trust but verify: Independent report on Australia’s “anti-encryption” legislation released

By Cameron Abbott and Rebecca Gill

The ability of a government to force a technology provider to create a “back door” into their technology to allow security agencies to “listen in” to communications is a very controversial step, but it has not been the subject of much discussion as any recipient of such intervention is gagged. 

It was interesting to see that the Independent National Security Legislation Monitor has released a report on its review of the Telecommunications and Other Legislation Amendment (Assistance and Access) Act 2018 (Cth) (TOLA Act). The review considered, and provided recommendations on, the operation, effectiveness and implications of the TOLA Act and whether it is necessary, is proportionate to the threats it seeks to meet and treats human rights properly.

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Human error accounts for 34% of Notifiable Data Breaches – 3 key take outs from the latest OAIC report

By Cameron Abbott and Karla Hodgson

The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner has released its Q2 statistics on notifications received under the Notifiable Data Breach (NDB) scheme. The 245 breach notifications in Q2 are on par with each other quarter since the scheme was introduced in July 2018 and while the majority of NDBs (62%) are attributed to malicious or criminal attacks, we noted with interest that a staggering 34% are due to human error – that is, mostly avoidable errors made by staff. A consistent theme of our blogs is reinforcing the message that employees are the front line of defence for organisations.

There are 3 key statistics we took away from these human error NDBs.

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Cyber diligence: Study reveals cybersecurity concerns are becoming a critical factor in M&A due diligence

By Cameron Abbott and Rebecca Gill

Unreported data breaches have disrupted several major M&A deals in recent years, such as Marriott International’s merger with the Starwood hotel chain. The growing list of cautionary (and costly) tales appears to be making an impression in the M&A space, as a recent study of IT professionals and business executives by Forescout Technologies has found.

The study queried a total of 2,779 respondents from all over the world, and found that 93% of the respondents viewed cybersecurity evaluations as important to their companies’ M&A decision-making processes. Respondents also ranked a target company’s history of cybersecurity incidents as the second most important factor when performing due diligence on the business, following the company’s financial statements.

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Privacy Awareness Week (Personal Data): technology suspicion – consumer concerns surrounding voice and digital assistants

By Cameron Abbott, Rob Pulham, Michelle Aggromito, Max Evans and Rebecca Gill

Protecting personal data is a fundamental aspect of any privacy regime. As we become more technological advanced, organisations are finding innovative ways to interact with consumers through more intuitive communication channels, such as voice recognition via digital assistants. But not everyone trusts such technology, as Microsoft’s April 2019 report on voice assistants and conversational artificial intelligence has found.

The report found that 41% of voice assistant users were concerned about trust, privacy and passive listening. Other interesting findings of the report include:

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Privacy Awareness Week (Health Information): Health sector and the notifiable data breach scheme – 12 months on

By Cameron Abbott, Rob Pulham, Michelle Aggromito and Rebecca Gill

It’s been a little over a year since the notifiable data breach scheme was introduced in Australia. The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) issued its Notifiable Data Breaches Scheme 12-month Insights Report on 13 May 2019, detailing its insights to come out of the scheme’s operation over the past 12 months. As regular readers would no doubt be aware, the health sector was one of the top industry sectors to report breaches in the first 12 months of the scheme’s operation.

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Privacy Awareness Week (Online Privacy): credential stuffing attacks are on the rise in Australia

By Cameron Abbott, Michelle Aggromito and Rebecca Gill

Today’s topic for Privacy Awareness Week is “online privacy”. It is no surprise that online privacy is a key topic of concern for businesses and consumers alike, given recent high-profile privacy breaches. Of particular significance is the issue of credential stuffing, as Australia is now the fifth highest target for credential stuffing attacks according to Akamai’s Credential Stuffing: Attacks and Economies report of April 2019 (Report).

Credential stuffing is a form of cyberattack where account credentials, usually usernames or email addresses and corresponding passwords, are stolen, typically from a previous security breach. The account credential combinations are then used to try and gain access to accounts at other sites via an automated and large-scale web application directed to multiple logins. It relies on individuals using the same password across multiple sites. K&L Gates has previously blogged on a high-profile credential stuffing attack that can be found here.

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Privacy Awareness Week (Data Breaches): Study finds majority of Australian businesses are ill-equipped to handle cybersecurity incidents

By Cameron Abbott, Rob Pulham and Rebecca Gill

It’s Privacy Awareness Week and today’s topic is “data breaches”. With data breaches and responding to cyber attacks becoming an inevitable part of doing business, it’s a timely reminder about the importance of adequately resourcing your IT security areas, and of having comprehensive and well-tested data breach response plans in place, as illustrated by the Fourth Annual Study on The Cyber Resilient Organization (Study), conducted by the Ponemon Institute on behalf of IBM Resilient.

The Study surveyed 3,655 IT and IT security practitioners in 11 countries and regions, including Australia. The results of the Study indicate that a majority of Australian businesses are vulnerable to cyber-attacks due to a lack of skilled personnel and incident response plans.

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Report finds finance and HR departments the greatest cybersecurity threats to organisations

By Cameron Abbott and Melanie Long

According to recent research conducted on behalf of cybersecurity firm Clearswift, finance and HR departments represent the biggest cybersecurity threat to organisations. The study polled more than 4500 information technology decision makers, security professionals and employees in the US, UK, Germany and Australia and found that 46% of respondents believed that finance departments posed a security threat to their organisation. In addition, 42% of respondents believed the same of an organisation’s HR departments.

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