In a Global Market for Hacking Talent, Argentines Stand Out

"As my colleague Dennis Howlett once said: “It’s not about Bitcoin, it’s the blockchain stupid”. And he’s right. Although the general public and the national press are obsessing over the future of Bitcoin as a new digital currency, trade organisations are getting themselves excited about the prospect of a new ‘hyperledger’ in the form of blockchain.
Blockchain is the Bride not Bitcoin ...

The biggest Australian data breaches of 2015

Cybersecurity start-ups are proliferating, but sorting out what works and what doesn't is tricky

FinExtra, 3./12/15. UK banks are reaching a tipping point in the fight against financial crime, with more than 60% agreeing that there is enough or too much regulation, but inadequate enforcement, according to research from LexisNexis Risk Solutions. Banks reach tipping point in fight against financial crime – research

News.com.au, 29/11/15. A GROUP of about 20 Russian hackers has fleeced over $1 billion from global bank accounts in the past three years, according to a new report Criminal hacking groups in Russia are becoming more like sophisticated corporations

Camouflash Wolf in Sheep's Clothing(sic)

Want to learn how to break into the computerized heart of a medical device or an electronic voting machine? Maybe a smartphone or even a car? Thanks to the legacy of military rule and a culture of breaking rules of all sorts, Argentina has become one of the best places on earth to find people who could show you how. As Silicon Valley’s talent war has gone global, particularly for those skilled at breaking into things, this Latin American nation has become a rich recruiting ground for corporations and foreign governments.
In a Global Market for Hacking Talent, Argentines Stand Ou

Tor Project: The super secure anonymity network that will definitely keep you safe (as long as hackers don’t break the rules) Yasha Levine, Pando

Exclusive US Justice Department probes data breach at uber sources

Eighteen of 70 tech companies on ATO transparency list paid no tax

Gartner: In most ways, Internet of Things analytics are like any other analytics. However, the need to distribute some IoT analytics to edge sites, and to use some technologies not commonly employed elsewhere, requires business intelligence and analytics leaders to adopt new best practices and software Three Best Practices for Internet of Things Analytics

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has been quietly launching stealthy cyber attacks against a range of private U.S. companies — mostly banks and energy firms. These digital intrusion attempts, commissioned in advance by the private sector targets themselves, are part of a little-known program at DHS designed to help “critical infrastructure” companies shore up their computer and network defenses against real-world adversaries. And it’s all free of charge.  According to DHS, the NCATS program offers full-scope penetration testing capabilities in the form of two separate programs: a “Risk and Vulnerability Assessment,” (RVA) and a “Cyber Hygiene” evaluation. Both are designed to help the partner organization better understand how external systems and infrastructure appear to potential attackers.  Krebs on Security December 1, 2015 
DHS Giving Firms Free Penetration Tests

“At least 72 employees at the Department of Homeland Security are listed on the U.S. terrorist watch list, according to a Democratic lawmaker.” [Adam Kredo, Free Beacon] Critics, including the ACLU, have complained that the list inadvertently sweeps in large numbers of innocent persons who are given no legal right to contest their inclusion. More:”My Fellow Liberals, Don’t Support Obama’s Terror Watch List Gun Ban” [Cathy Gellis, The Daily Beast]

The Air Force is finalizing a $49.5 million plan to hire private sector coders who, by developing software, can sabotage adversary computer systems and thwart incoming hack attacks. An official contract for the "Offensive Cyberspace Operations Defensive Cyberspace Operations Real-Time Operations and Innovation Cyber Development Custom Software Engineering Services" program is slated for publication Jan. 29, 2016. SHELTER, the nickname for the mouthful of a project title, is a 5.5-year deal that would add to the Defense Department’s growing arsenal of cyberweapons.

Here's Air Force’s $49.5M Plan to Outsource Cyberweapon and Counterhack Software

British pub chain JD Wetherspoon has been hit by a cyber attack which leaked the names, email addresses and birthdates of 650,000 customers as well as some of the credit and debit card details for 100 buyers of its gift vouchers, it said on Friday. Wetherspoon, which operates around 900 pubs, said the attack on its database occurred in June but had only just been discovered, and mainly affected customers who had purchased vouchers online or signed up to the company newsletter. It said no complete card numbers were recorded and as a result the data could not be used for fraudulent purposes. UK Pubs Group JD Wetherspoon Hit by Cyber Attack

Just over week after a hacker breached a United Arab Emirates Bank, demanding a ransom to stop tweeting customers’ information, he appears to have dumped tens of thousands of customer files online. As captured in archived tweets on since-deleted accounts, a user identifying himself as “Hacker Buba” tweeted information, mostly of corporate accounts, that was reportedly stolen from Invest Bank.

After asking UAE bank for $3 million ransom, hacker dumps tens of thousands of customers' transactions history online

Tax risk soars for businesses in digital world
EY, 2015. As technology reshapes everyday life, multinational companies face new challenges in complying with evolving tax laws.

Advisers query HMRC information-sharing advert

Accountancy Age, 8/12/15. In the advert (pictured), the tax authority lists more than 90 countries and jurisdictions that are set to commence the sharing of financial information on UK taxpayers. However, doubts have been raised by practitioners over whether HMRC can readily handle and make use of the information garnered through the arrangements.

 

New tools and data sets for impactful policy analysis
Cabinet Office Analysis and Insight Team, 2/12/15. We have been testing Rapid Miner – a suite of tools that permits, among other things, text mining and website analysis.

The acceleration of the Smart and Skilled reforms by NSW Skills Minister John Barilaro comes *despite"  the alleged * rorting * of  billions of dollars in Commonwealth subsidies by training colleges, recently exposed by the consumer watchdog TAFE NSW slow motion accident: funding to be cut to half as more-dollars pushed to private colleges

Huge Fraud by few bad apples who charmed politicians with b*****t as they delivered fraud Training college misconduct revelations