iTWire - Ransomware? No fear, Scott Morrison has a plan. An action plan

Scott Morrison wants to get re-elected. Nothing wrong with that aspiration; which man who earns more than half-a-million a year without having to take responsibility for anything at all wouldn't want to continue in the job? Hence the...

iTWire - Missouri goes after man who looked at source code on state site

A newspaper in St Louis, Missouri, which discovered that the social security numbers of school teachers, administrators and counsellors across the state were publicly exposed and informed the authorities, has been threatened with unspecified...

iTWire - Tech industry bodies urge government to revise emergency powers bill

Three technology industry bodies have urged the Federal Government to significantly revise the Security Legislation Amendment (Critical Infrastructure) Bill 2020 before it is voted on, as it would "create an unworkable set of obligations and...

iTWire - VirusTotal study finds 95% of 80m ransomware samples analysed aimed at Windows

Ninety-five percent of 80 million ransomware samples detected by VirusTotal, a Google-owned database where samples can be uploaded to see which anti-virus engines can detect them, were Windows-based executables or dynamic link libraries [DLLs], a...

iTWire - Govt to force businesses with $10m annual turnover to report ransomware attacks

The Federal Government will make it compulsory for businesses that have an annual turnover of $10 million or more to report ransomware attacks, Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews says. In a statement on Wednesday, Andrews said the reporting...

iTWire - Cyber insurance should not cover ransoms: Australian officials

Companies that offer insurance in Australia to cover network attacks, including ransomware incidents, should be prohibited from making any ransom or extortion payments, the Cyber Security Co-­operative Research Centre says. A paper written by...

iTWire - Macquarie Health Corporation hit by Windows Hive ransomware

Macquarie Health Corporation has announced that it has suffered what it describes as a "cyber incident", that has led to it taking its IT systems offline "as a precaution". iTWire understands the "cyber incident" is a...

iTWire - Anti-trust suspicion: Japan to take a good look at Apple, Google

Apple and Google have come under scrutiny in Japan, with the country's Fair Trade Commission set to investigate whether the two companies are using their dominance of mobile operating systems to cut out competition. A report published by the...

iTWire - EU to file anti-trust against Apple over NFC chip: claim

The European Union is set to file an anti-trust suit against Apple over the NFC chip technology it uses for tap-and-go payments, a report claims. Reuters cited "people familiar with the matter" as saying the EU's preliminary concerns...

iTWire - US appeal on Assange extradition to be heard on 27 and 28 Oct

A hearing on an US appeal to strike down a court decision and allow the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will be held on 27 and 28 October at the High Court in London, according to a message from the Don't Extradite Assange...

iTWire - Let's Encrypt root certificate expiry causes issues for some

The expiry on 30 September of a root certificate, IdentTrust DST Root CA X3, belonging to the provider Let's Encrypt has led to some big websites facing problems verifying certificates. Let's Encrypt is a non-profit and one of the bigger...

iTWire - Researchers find new backdoor likely linked to SolarWinds attacker

Global cyber security firm Kaspersky claims to have discovered a new backdoor it has named Tomiris which shows signs of being connected to the same actor behind the attacks on SolarWinds which were revealed last year. Kaspersky's researchers...

iTWire - Facebook puts off Instagram Kids launch after adverse WSJ report

Facebook has announced that it will be putting off the planned launch of a version of Instagram for children, after a backlash against the plan grew in the US. Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, said in a statement issued on Monday that while...

iTWire - Report claims CIA planned to abduct or kill Assange in 2017

The American Central Intelligence Agency discussed plans to either abduct or kill WikiLeaks founder and publisher Julian Assange in 2017, a Yahoo! News report claims. The lengthy report says the spy agency was angry about the leak of some of its...

iTWire - Europe proposes USB-C as common port for digital devices

The European Commission has proposed that all wired digital devices should have USB-C as a common port for charging and also asked companies to standardise on fast charging technology. In a statement, the EC, the executive arm of the European...

iTWire - Nokia has recommenced participation in the O-RAN Alliance

The O-RAN Alliance has issued a statement that it remains fully committed to its mission of delivering open, intelligent, virtualised and fully interoperable RAN.  The O-RAN Alliance said it became aware of concerns regarding some...

iTWire - Reuters scribes claim exclusive three years after it came to light

A story about US mercenaries going to work for the UAE Government, without obtaining the necessary American clearances, was claimed as an exclusive in 2019 by two Reuters reporters – even though the yarn had already been told three years...

iTWire - Details of campaign that targeted Turkish journalists uncovered

A team at security shop SentinelLABS has released detailed research about a threat actor it has dubbed EGoManiac, which operated between 2010 and 2016 and messed with Turkish TV journalists at OdaTV in order to place incriminating documents and...

iTWire - Nokia leaves Open RAN project after US blacklists suppliers

Finnish telecommunications equipment vendor Nokia has pulled the plug on its participation in the US-backed Open Radio Access Network Alliance [corrected], a grouping that aims to develop software for running 5G networks, according to a report on...

iTWire - Bloomberg claims Juniper included NSA backdoor on DoD advice

Global networking products manufacturer Juniper Networks in 2008 incorporated a flawed algorithm from the NSA in its NetScreen devices, even though the company was aware of the flaw that was suspected to provide a backdoor. The claim was made on...