Stories by Hamish Barwick

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AusCERT 2011: In Pictures: Exhibitors out in force

By Hamish Barwick | 16 May, 2011 12:56

AusCERT 2011 is about more than just the speakers, security vendors are out in force promoting their services with eye catching stands.

AusCERT 2011: In pictures: Celebrations as 10th AusCERT begins

By Hamish Barwick | 16 May, 2011 11:22

Celebrations as 10th AusCERT conference begins on Gold Coast.

AusCERT 2011: Identity theft no joke for Welsh comedian

By Hamish Barwick | 16 May, 2011 10:38

As a professional comedian Bennett Arron gets paid to see the funny side of things, but a run-in with identity thieves in the 1990s had him far from laughing.

Cloud Security Alliance to create Australia-NZ chapter

By Hamish Barwick | 13 May, 2011 11:25

Australia will host a local chapter of the international Cloud Security Alliance to provide a Australia/New Zealand voice to the global Cloud secuity advocacy group.

Biometrics Institute eyes state of the industry

By Hamish Barwick | 10 May, 2011 10:01

The A/NZ Biometrics Institute is looking at the future of biometrics and seeing if community perceptions about Big Brother have changed with its latest industry survey.

Complex IT security policies lead to greater internal risk: Telstra

By Hamish Barwick | 09 May, 2011 12:28

Companies have more to fear when it comes to security within its four walls than from outside because of complex security policies and an experience generation gap, believes one industry expert.

Google Australia lays out future Street View privacy measures

By Hamish Barwick | 05 May, 2011 11:39

Google Australia has moved to reassure Australians that any future Street View mapping will comply with privacy laws and not collect Wi-Fi data.

Identity theft, e-fraud top Australian security concerns: Unisys

By Hamish Barwick | 05 May, 2011 08:29

Financial fraud, identity theft and environmental disasters lean more heavily on Australians’ minds than national security threats, according to a Unisys report.

Treat cyber crime as an act of war: IT lecturer

By Hamish Barwick | 02 May, 2011 08:55

A war is raging right now in cyberspace and Australians need to arm themselves accordingly against online criminals, according to one expert.

Email viruses creep up as spam falls in April

By Hamish Barwick | 29 April, 2011 08:48

Malicious emails took the lead from spam as the biggest cyber threat in Australia during April as targeted attacks continued to rise.

Cloud, social media top Information Security Forum concern list

By Hamish Barwick | 21 April, 2011 12:52

An open approach to Cloud computing and social media may be preferred by users, but it is proving to be a nightmare for companies who take a locked down approach to security.

Lax attitude to PCI, security costing businesses: Investigator

By Hamish Barwick | 21 April, 2011 08:41

Merchants who view security and payment card industry (PCI) compliance as an extra cost will be rueing the decision when hackers hoping to swipe credit card data strike, believes one industry specialist.

Spammers still mining Japan, NZ earthquake appeals: Symantec

By Hamish Barwick | 19 April, 2011 13:00

The charitable nature of Australians has been under threat, as spammers continue to hijack Japan and New Zealand disaster relief funds.

Monash University CIO to review Web hosting

By Hamish Barwick | 18 April, 2011 17:15

Monash University in Melbourne, Victoria, has flagged a possible review of its Web hosting arrangements following a recent hack which replaced its website's home page with an image of the Iranian flag.

Internal security top of mind for AusCERT

By Hamish Barwick | 18 April, 2011 12:52

When a delegate list includes people from the US Naval Criminal Investigation Service (NCIS), AusCERT 2011 organisers know all too well that their security may be tested.

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Security Awareness Tip

Incident handling is a vast topic, but here are a few tips for you to consider in your incident response. I hope you never have to use them, but the odds are at some point you will and I hope being ready saves you pain (or your job!).


  1. Have an incident response plan.

  2. Pre-define your incident response team 

  3. Define your approach: watch and learn or contain and recover.

  4. Pre-distribute call cards.

  5. Forensic and incident response data capture.

  6. Get your users on-side.

  7. Know how to report crimes and engage law enforcement. 

  8. Practice makes perfect.

For the full breakdown on this article

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Warning: Tips for secure mobile holiday shopping

I’m dating myself, but I remember when holiday shopping involved pouring through ads in the Sunday paper, placing actual phone calls from tethered land lines to research product stock and availability, and actually driving places to pick things up. Now, holiday shoppers can do all of that from a smartphone or tablet in a few seconds, but there are some security pitfalls to be aware of.