Stories by: Julian Bajkowski

Federal government employees will become human guinea pigs as a preliminary test to an Australia-wide rollout of smartcards federal government services delivery under a proposal floated by Special Minister of State, Senator Eric Abetz.

Australia's big four banks are a house divided over the introduction of biometrics identifiers to control fraud, with the National Australia Bank pouring cold water on the introduction of fingerprint identification for its customers.

The federal Privacy Commissioner has opened a formal investigation into possible breaches of the Privacy Act by Telstra mobile reseller Switch Mobile and call centre outsourcer One Touch Solutions following revelations that customer data from the two companies is for sale on the black market in India.

A showcase of Australia's latest and greatest military technology has been eclipsed by new warnings that the nation's defence capabilities could soon be seriously undermined unless a growing technological brain drain is arrested.

Attempts to exhume the concept of a national identity card backed by a central database have been effectively shut down by the National Party's Senator Barnaby Joyce (Queensland).

After a week of ministerial bickering, the shutter has slammed down on speculation about a single identity document for Australians, with Attorney General Philip Ruddock publicly repudiating the concept of an Australia Card.

The federal government may consider a range of further curbs to regulate the use of so-called spyware, but will look for pragmatic solutions from the corporate sector, public interest groups and IT vendors rather than take a legal stick to the problem.

With Federal government hitching its border security to the biometrics bandwagon, two knowledgeable ex-feds give their frank and differing views on where the taxpayer-funded romance with the technology is heading. Julian Bajkowski reports.

A high-profile computer crime degree certificate course at Melbourne University Private (MUP) has closed its doors to new enrolments as a result of the tertiary institution falling on hard times.

The man in charge of enforcing whole-of-government IT cohesion, Special Minister of State Senator Eric Abetz, has publicly backed calls from Federal Privacy Commissioner Karen Curtis for a wider review of Australia's privacy laws.

Australian IT managers fed up with purging their networks of spyware are being encouraged to front up and tell officers of the federal Department of IT, Communications and the Arts (DCITA) how bad the situation really is.