Friday, February 17, 2017

OPM Cybersecurity Hearing Devolves into Russia Hacking Squabble



“He wanted the digital revolution—like the world—to be innocent, when it had never been.”




Nextgov

Story image for ato tax from iT NewsWhat's the effective life of Australia's data centres?
iT News 


SA follows NSW and Tas with new CISO position

HMRC confirms it will use alternative flagship gov.uk verify identify service


Ars Technica February 8, 2017
Two years ago, researchers at Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab discovered their corporate network was infected with malware that was unlike anything they had ever seen. Virtually all of the malware resided solely in the memory of the compromised computers, a feat that had allowed the infection to remain undetected for six months or more. Kaspersky eventually unearthed evidence that Duqu 2.0, as the never-before-seen malware was dubbed, was derived from Stuxnet, the highly sophisticated computer worm reportedly created by the US and Israel to sabotage Iran’s nuclear program. Now, fileless malware is going mainstream, as financially motivated criminal hackers mimic their nation-sponsored counterparts. According to research Kaspersky Lab plans to publish Wednesday, networks belonging to at least 140 banks and other enterprises have been infected by malware that relies on the same in-memory design to remain nearly invisible. Because infections are so hard to spot, the actual number is likely much higher. Another trait that makes the infections hard to detect is the use of legitimate and widely used system administrative and security tools—including PowerShell, Metasploit, and Mimikatz—to inject the malware into computer memory


SMEs warned to treat AUSkey details like credit card info

 

The widespread debate about fake news and what to do about it exposes a large gap in Australia’s regulatory and policy machinery, and points to a broader issue around the lack of concentrated and deep digital policy and technical capability in the Australian government. Tom Burton: fake news and Canberra’s alternative reality
  



   The Cult of Work Hazlift. From 2015. Nikhil: “I think we are at a crucial time that commenter aab articulates perfectly. The problem is that we have two parts of the left that can’t seem to talk to each other. Anyway I thought this article might be an interesting step in that direction.”



In Israel, Teaching Kids Cyber Skills Is a National Mission


'Fake news': Coalition dismisses criticism of its digital performance


 HPE blames solid state disk failure for outages at Australian Tax Office
HPE has blamed a problem with solid state disks for its dual and very disruptive outages at the Australian Taxation Office (ATO)


Uber loses GST battle with ATO