joshgnosis - Slashdot User

Submission + - Aussie government brings back piracy talks (zdnet.com.au)

Submitted by joshgnosis on Monday June 04, 2012 @08:10PM

joshgnosis writes: The Australian Attorney-General's department is set to hold a closed-door meeting with internet service providers, film lobby groups and consumer groups over proposals to reduce piracy on Thursday.

The meetings were at a stalemate after sources said that neither the ISPs or the film groups could see eye to eye on the best proposal but the department confirmed that the meetings will go ahead and will this time include consumer advocate groups, who were previously excluded from the meetings.

Submission + - Australia drops second Google investigation (zdnet.com.au)

Submitted by joshgnosis on Tuesday May 29, 2012 @10:44PM

joshgnosis writes: The Australian Privacy Commissioner has decided against investigating Google a second time over the collection of Wi-Fi payload data in Google's Street View cars.

Despite a damning FCC report released last month claiming that senior manager within Google were aware that a "rogue" engineer was working on the project on the side, he said a second investigation wouldn't yield any new results.

"I have decided not to open another investigation into Google Street View," he said in a statement. "In reaching this decision, I have considered the FCC's report and don't consider that a new investigation would reveal any information that would change our original finding."

Submission + - Court ruling shuts down Australian cloud TV recorders (zdnet.com.au)

Submitted by joshgnosis on Friday May 25, 2012 @12:02AM

joshgnosis writes: In the wake of an Australian Federal Court ruling last month that free-to-air TV recording app Optus TV Now was infringing on the copyright of some of the country's biggest sports broadcasts, two other services — Beem and MyTVR have also been forced to suspend their services.

Beem lashed out at the ruling, telling customers that their rights had been "diminished' by the judgment and rights owners were "scared" of cloud-based TV recording services in the same way they once were of VCRs.

Submission + - Apple blocks sale of Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia (zdnet.com.au)

Submitted by

lukehopewell1

on Monday August 01, 2011 @07:28PM

lukehopewell1 writes: "Apple has obtained an injunction from an Australian court effectively blocking the sale of the new Android Honeycomb-powered Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1v. Apple Australia claims that the unit infringes on 10 of the Cupertino, California-based company's patents including the slide to unlock functionality as well as the edge-bounce feature. Samsung will provide Apple Australia with three units for study in coming weeks to ascertain whether or not the Korean gadget maker did in fact infringe on Apple's patented intellectual property."

Submission + - ALDI sells Conficker-infected hard drives (zdnet.com.au)

Submitted by

mukimu

on Friday July 29, 2011 @12:15AM

mukimu writes: "Supermarket ALDI has been selling malware-infected hard drives in Australian stores, prompting the country's Computer Emergency Response Team (AusCERT) to issue an security alert to users on behalf of the government.

ALDI has had to issue a recall on the products, which contained components of Conficker, and remove the product from its stores.

AusCERT noted that the worm should be picked up by antivirus given it is extremely old and past its hey day when it infected Australian Banks and transport infrastructure."

Submission + - Google scares Aussie banks (zdnet.com.au)

Submitted by mask.of.sanity on Sunday November 07, 2010 @07:36PM

mask.of.sanity writes: Google could be the biggest threat to Australia's big four banks because of the trust online users place in it and its ability to engage with customers, banking executives say. They told an audience from the finance sector that companies like Google and PayPal are more responsive and trusted than banks, and cited emerging technology with an emphasis on online applications as a means for the smaller credit unions to challenge the position of incumbent banks.

It's welcome news for Australia's credit unions: the nation's banks have taken turns in being the first to lift interest rates above the official reserve bank rate, with others collectively following suit, leading some to speculate they are in collusion.

Submission + - Aussie research company brings Wi-Fi to TV antenna (zdnet.com.au)

Submitted by joshgnosis on Wednesday November 03, 2010 @12:17AM

joshgnosis writes: The CSIRO has unveiled new technology that could bring internet to people in rural or remote parts of Australia using their existing TV antennas. Analog TV signal is set to be switched off in 2013 but this technology could see the spectrum used to deliver internet straight into people's homes through their TV antenna. Gartner expert Robin Simpson told ZDNet Australia that this would make it much easier for companies to get new customers. "What appeals to me about it is that it re-uses existing infrastructure, all of the competing wireless technologies tend to use high frequencies and therefore require new base stations, new spectrum and new receiving antenna infrastructure as well," he said. "The fact that they're re-using the analog TV stuff gives them a much easier market entry strategy."

Submission + - Aust privacy boss slams gov data retention scheme (zdnet.com.au)

Submitted by mask.of.sanity on Thursday October 28, 2010 @08:46PM

mask.of.sanity writes: The Australian Government's privacy commissioner has slammed its plans to implement a data retention scheme, in which it would asked telcos and internet to store the browsing and calling logs of Australian subscribers.

He said the scheme would put user privacy in jeopardy because data will lie around at the behest of law enforcement.

The Aussie scheme would be based on that which exists in Europe under the EU Directive. The directive aims to give law enforcement authorities the ability to ascertain the identity of a person using a public network to communicate by mobile, fixed line, email, or internet. The directive defines "data" to be collected as "traffic data and location data and the related data necessary to identify the subscriber or user".

In Australia, Rising VoIP Attacks Mean Huge Bills For Victims 178

Posted by timothy on Sunday October 10, 2010 @07:12PM from the that's-off-the-hook dept.

mask.of.sanity writes with this excerpt from ZDNet Australia: "Australian network companies have told of clients receiving phone bills including $100,000 worth of unauthorised calls placed over compromised VoIP servers. Smaller attacks have netted criminals tens of thousands of dollars worth of calls. A Perth business was hit with a $120,000 bill after hackers exploited its VoIP server to place some 11,000 calls over 46 hours last year. ... Local network providers and the SANs Institute have reported recent spikes in Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) scanning — a process to identify poorly configured VoIP systems — and brute-force attacks against publicly-accessible SIP systems, notably on UDP port 5060."

Submission + - Crims use hacked email to steal house (zdnet.com.au) 1

Submitted by mask.of.sanity on Monday September 13, 2010 @09:12PM

mask.of.sanity writes: An international cybercrime investigation is underway into a sophisticated scam network that used email and fax to sell an Australian man's AU$500,000 property without his knowledge. The man was overseas when the Nigerian-based scammers stole his credentials and amazingly sold two houses through his real estate agent. He rushed home and prevented the sale of his second home from being finalised.

Australian Federal Police and overseas law enforcement agencies will investigate the complex scam, which is considered the first of its kind in Australia. It is alleged scammers had stolen the man's email account and personal and property documents to sell the houses and funnel cash into Chinese bank accounts. Investigating agencies admit the scammers hoodwinked both the selling agents and the government, and said they had enough information to satisfy regulatory requirements. The police did not rule out if the scammers had links to the man.

Submission + - Hackers accidentally send their code to Microsoft (zdnet.com.au)

Submitted by joshgnosis on Thursday August 26, 2010 @08:10PM

joshgnosis writes: When hackers crash Windows in the course of developing malware, they'll often accidentally agree to send the virus code straight to Microsoft, according to senior security architect Rory Heckman

Aussie Lasers To Stop Satellite Collisions, Death 84

Posted by timothy on Thursday July 15, 2010 @10:36PM from the elaborate-postponement dept.

bennyboy64 writes "An Australian company is developing a laser tracking system that will help prevent collisions between satellites and space debris, ZDNet reports. 'The trouble is it's [debris] in orbit and travelling at orbital speeds, which means that it is travelling at about 30,000 kilometres an hour," said the CEO of the Australian company. 'If even a tiny little piece runs into a satellite it'll destroy it or punch a hole through a person if they're out there space walking.'"

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