Government
News
AusCERT 2013: Deploying BYOD in a government environment
Strong executive desire to use iPhones led the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities to start looking for solutions that would separate government from personal information.
Despite $1.46b furphy, 2013-14 Budget offers slim pickings for cyber security
Months on from the government’s bold PR initiative in which it said it would spend $1.46 billion on IT security, the release of the 2013-14 federal budget has shown little additional financial support for this and other cyber security initiatives.
Microsoft releases Hotmail, Skype government user data requests
Microsoft has released its first report detailing its compliance with law enforcement user data requests across several consumer services, including Skype.
Youth Advisory Group on Cybersafety program unveiled
The Youth Advisory Group (YAG) on Cybersafety program for 2013 has been launched with the first online discussion forum taking place with primary school students in the Northern Territory, South Australia and West Australia tomorrow.
AFP shuts down P2P child abuse network
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has arrested 21 people involved with a peer-to-peer child abuse file sharing network.
Slideshows
In pictures: PM launches cyber safety program
Prime Minister Julia Gillard was on hand in Sydney this week to launch a new cyber education module called bCyberwise. Developed by Life Education and McAfee, the program is designed to teach primary school students about online dangers such as becoming `friends' with strangers and cyber bullying. The program will be rolled out to Australian schools from 4 February.
AISA National Conference: In pictures
- Amazon, Apple and Google know more about you than your doctor or lawyer - and Commbank is jealous as hell. - Don’t trust an organisation that doesn’t have a face - because then you can’t punch it in when they screw up, said Marcus Ranum. - 78 percent of the world’s population doesn’t have access to a computer or the internet and therefore avoid all IT security problems.
Lulzsec: the rise and fall of a hacking collective
The curtain has fallen on the 50 day performance by hacker group LulzSec. Its campaign of mayhem and destruction, peppered with witty commentary captivated the world. In an alternate universe where Lulzcats reign and anti-security is the norm, it might have even earned a spot on its first target, The X-Factor. But on this earth its members may still be captured by its later targets: the CIA, US law enforcement and the FBI.
Opinions
Opinions: Even More Reason to Get Protection
Most modern day cyber attacks tend to target organisations and governments with the explicit purpose of stealing information and causing disruption. As a consequence, governments have had to reassess their stance on cyber crime, and many are attempting to tackle the problem directly.
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AusCERT 2013: Cloud-based scanner identifies new malware by its ancestry
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Dell targets ANZ security opportunities as SecureWorks debuts locally
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AusCERT 2013: Users, cats more likely hack culprits than cyber-espionage: Trustwave
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AusCERT 2013: International cyberwar response more complex than geopolitical treaties: NATO CCD COE analyst
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AusCERT 2013: Ashley Deuble: Network Security Monitoring with Security Onion
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!).
- Have an incident response plan.
- Pre-define your incident response team
- Define your approach: watch and learn or contain and recover.
- Pre-distribute call cards.
- Forensic and incident response data capture.
- Get your users on-side.
- Know how to report crimes and engage law enforcement.
- Practice makes perfect.
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.
