It is impossible to ignore the barrage of hacks that have attacked all manner of big corporate business with services aligned to individuals. It is easy to lose track of which company and when, that is the nature of targeted attacks. The Australian Federal government is far behind on the tech front, how can they possibly keep up? So, they try to legislate in retrospect. We will fine [insert hacked company] [insert large amount of money] to ensure that companies invest in cybersecurity and protect the privacy of its customers.
But this isn’t the answer, this retrospective action against hackers is just playing catchup. As we have witnessed the relentless ease with which data is being compromised, stolen, held to ransom, we are also trying to legislate digital theft, not from the dirty, baseless criminals stealing it but from the companies that allow it to happen. A long read in The Guardian titled Ransomware hunters: the self-taught tech geniuses fighting cybercrime discusses how ransomware is an efficient crime with little accountability. Even if you pinpoint and arrest the criminal, the damage is far-reaching and ubiquitous and can be traumatising to those that have had their identity stolen.
Faster Networks is a cybersecurity venture. We understand that there are safeguards that can protect a company’s data, to a point. However, nothing is foolproof. That’s why you need a staircase of protection, think 2 step authentication on steroids, a digital Alcatraz.
The Australian Financial Review recently reported on a talk the chairman of the ATO gave at a tax summit. Jeremy Hirschhorn alerted businesses to the intensity of “cascading penetration attempts”. Hirschhorn says that approximately 3 million attacks are defended every month at the ATO. The real issue is that people are gathering data about individuals from various attacks and whole identity theft is on the table. The ATO knows how important data protection is, it receives some ‘14 million individual income tax returns every year and deals with 4.3 million small businesses, 201,000 privately owned Australian groups and about 40,000 multinationals.’ The reality is, an attack is imminent.
On the back of recent telco hacks, namely Optus, Queensland announced new licence applications would be free and VicRoads announced new licenses would include a security number. Department of Foreign Affairs said the data breach affected nearly 1 million Victorian licence holders.
On the back of Medibank and Optus recent hacks, there were victims of identity fraud telling their stories as a way to alert people to the signals of identity theft. The ABC website reported on ‘Sarah’ who first learned things were ‘off’ when someone knocked on her parents door in Queensland seeking her sexual services. Her licence details were posted online and people had used her name and address to steal money from unsuspecting buyers. Sarah’s theft came from posting her licence photo to a real estate agent for a rental application. None of this is acceptable behaviour in fact, it is criminal but, what followed is far more damaging. Sarah had multiple credit applications submitted in her name and she was desperately contacting financial institutions to cancel fraudulent applications. The real estate agency posted her licence image online with property pictures accidentally, it was then available on Pinterest and now, it come up in a Google search of her name. Seriously.
If you believe you have had your identity stolen in any capacity the Federal Government has set up a new service IDcare to talk you through next steps, starting with a credit ban. [/vc_column_text][vc_separator type=”normal”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”full_width” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern”][vc_column][vc_column_text]Faster Networks help businesses protect their digital assets. We are a cyber security partner that brings the best software solutions that anticipate and fix digital vulnerabilities. Our areas of expertise includes Vulnerability Management, Security Orchestration Automation and Response (SOAR), Application Security, Infrastructure Security, Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Protection and Application Pentesting.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
