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Information security

February

Greg Boorer, CEO and founder of CDC Data Centres, has built a hugely valuable and fast-growing company from scratch.

Canberra Data Centres worth $17b after $2b share sale

The founder expects the company to triple in the next five years after the Future Fund and Infratil increased their holdings.

January

Michael Gianarakis is the co-founder and chief executive of Assetnote.

Brisbane ‘ethical hackers’ bank $100m payday from UK buyer

Assetnote was founded in 2018 and counts major companies including Qantas and Atlassian as clients, helping them find weaknesses in their cybersecurity.

December 2024

Alceon Private Equity co-head Zac Midalia and Efex CEO Nick Sheehan.

Alceon’s IT biz Efex acquires specialist Medihost Solutions

Medihost marks Efex’s fourth bolt-on acquisition this year, as it aims to become the No.1 IT services provider to small-to-medium enterprises.

November 2024

Atturra CEO Stephen Kowal and Cirrus Networks boss Chris McLaughlin.

IT group Atturra on M&A trail; upsizes raise to $76.5m

The company’s brokers, Barrenjoey Capital Partners and Unified Capital Partners, have split the cash call into a $60.5 million placement and a $6 million share purchase plan.

IMG boss Dennison Hambling.

Intelligent Monitoring to acquire WA’s Dataline; raising $20m

In tandem with the $20 million raise, IMG’s largest shareholder, Hong Kong-based PE firm Black Crane Capital, was also seeking buyers for its 11 per cent stake.

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October 2024

Small business want protection from Labor’s proposed overhaul of privacy laws.

Small business wants out of privacy laws as data breaches rise 215pc

The small business lobby is pushing to limit the reach of Labor’s overhaul of the Privacy Act to firms with annual turnover above $10 million, up from the current threshold of $3 million.

September 2024

Jon Waldron outside the Downing Centre District Court last month.

Ex CBA banker Jon Waldron jailed for bribery

The former CBA technology executive was sentenced to a maximum of six years and eight months prison on Friday, following a conviction in May.

Privacy Commissioner Carly Kind.

Labor’s plan for protecting your privacy: hope the internet disappears

The Albanese government has squibbed at nearly 40 key privacy reforms and given in to an outdated argument that Australia is a nation of shopkeepers.

AirTrunk’s deals have been themed around Star Wars, with the company’s chief financial officer a fan of the sci-fi series.

Inside Project Amidala: AirTrunk’s $24b deal

Four years ago, Blackstone missed its chance to buy up the data centre giant. It wasn’t about to make the same mistake twice, even if it cost $24 billion.

July 2024

Long queues of passengers at the check-in counters at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila, amid the global IT disruption caused by the  Microsoft outage.

What caused the huge global IT outage?

Friday’s international meltdown is an example of how a minor technical change, made by a company unknown to most outside the IT industry, can wreak havoc.

COSBOA CEO Luke Achterstraat is resisting the proposed changes.

Small firms fight push to force data-breach reporting

Before critical cabinet considerations of major privacy reforms, small business groups say now is not the right time to add further compliance costs.

May 2024

Firstmac hack deepens, credit card data stolen

The theft of credit card details has raised concerns about the Brisbane-based lender’s security and encryption standards.

Ransomware group claims attack on valuer HTW

In a post on the dark web, Black Suit says it has obtained 20 gigabytes of the valuation firm’s customer and transaction data.

April 2024

Two sources say the data breach at valuation firm HTW was a hack and that information about former employees has been compromised.

HTW employee details may have been compromised in valuer data breach

Banks are still waiting for an independent evaluation of the data breach and some are increasing their restrictions on the valuation firm.

Anybody home? Valuations firm HTW has been suspended from new work by the major banks following a data breach late last week.

Valuation firm HTW suspended by banks after data breach

The company, one of Australia’s three largest valuers, gave no details of the incident and declined to say if it was a ransomware attack.

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December 2023

Biometrics are being used to classify people’s emotions based on eye movements and key strokes, says Australia’s new Privacy Commissioner, Carly Kind.

Keystroke-tracking tech leaves privacy rules out of date: new watchdog

Rapid changes in artificial intelligence and biometrics are making current laws out of date says Australia’s next privacy commissioner, Carly Kind.

November 2023

Arlo Ultra

New star rating system to help secure home devices

Default passwords will be banned and a mandatory cyber rating system for consumer internet-connected appliances are to be part of a new cyber strategy to be released next week.

Containers were piling up at DP World’s terminal in Sydney’s Port Botany on Sunday because trucks could not get ino the terminal to collect them.

DP World hack strands 30,000 shipping containers

Tens of thousands of shipping containers stuffed with consumer goods were trapped at ports around the country after a cyberattack on stevedore DP World Australia.

October 2023

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s taxpayer funded booze-bill remains in legal limbo.

PM backflips on diary but booze bill remains a mystery

Anthony Albanese has reversed a decision to keep his official diary secret, but his department is dragging its feet on his taxpayer-funded alcohol bill.

Autonomous delivery vehicles for Cainiao near the Alibaba Group headquarters in Hangzhou, China. There are concerns around Alibaba’s European hub in Belgium.

Belgium monitors Alibaba hub over ‘espionage’ concerns

European governments have been increasing scrutiny of the alleged security and economic risks posed by Chinese companies.

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/information-security-5ym