Peter A Clarke

The development of drone technology moves apace.  Now drones are being operated by and tied to virtual reality goggles worn by the operator as reported by Slate in A Drone Linked to a VR Headset Lets You Explore the Sky, Almost for Real . Interestingly the article highlights one of the drone’s features as permitting the user to map out a flight plan, something that has been possible for a while but not commonly available, while another system swaps batteries itself when one runs of out power.  That is a huge development as Read the rest of this entry »

Following hot on the heels of Kmart announcing a data breach David Jones has started notifying customers today that there has been a large scale data breach of its website.  Itnews covers the story in David Jones website hacked, customer data stolen & the Age in David Jones says third party accessed ‘limited’ customer information. The PM program covered the story in Department store David Jones says customer details stolen in data breach with the transcript provides:

PETER LLOYD: The personal and private details of customers of retailer David Jones are in the hands of criminals who hacked the company’s computer system. But DJs insists no credit card information or passwords were stolen.

It’s also happened recently to K-Mart and the privacy commissioner says there has been a huge jump in reports of computer hacking to steal data over the last year. Read the rest of this entry »

Kmart announced on 30 September 2015 that it had suffered suffered a data breach, caused by hackers.  Customer information, Read the rest of this entry »

The Economist in its most recent edition has a detailed article on the expansion in the use and numbers of drones in Welcome to the Drone Age. It concisely summarises how quickly drones have developed once drones were introduced into civilian usage.  And how poorly the governments and regulators have responded to this remarkable equipment.  The FAA in the USA and, to a lesser extent, CASA have failed to anticipate and react promptly to the widening use of drones.  As for the issues of privacy breaches and criminal law responses the state and Federal governments have done nothing.  There has been a total failure of policy.  As the article makes clear in this Read the rest of this entry »

The requirement for proper cyber security policies is no longer only of interest to privacy regulators.  Earlier this year I posted on ASIC’s Report 429, Cyber Resilience (see Report on Cyber Resilience, highlights the need for proper cyber security, this time from ASIC) where ASIC now makes it clear that it regards proper cyber security as being part of a directors legal obligations.

In the United States the Securities and Exchange Commission also has a not unreasonable interest in cyber security.  Financial records contain considerable personal information and details which allow for fraud identity theft.  Yesterday it made it clear that it takes poor cyber security practices seriously when it announced that it Read the rest of this entry »

Data breach notification legislation is becoming a mandatory feature of most data legislation in the developed world.  There are some quirks here and there, with the USA having data breach notification in most states but not at a Federal level.  There is no data breach notification legislation in Australia at a state level and very limited at a Federal level, confined to breaches relating to some health records.  There is no general requirement.  That has always been a concern.  Given there is now mandatory data retention laws in Australia by telcos that is now a significant failing.  Telecommunications firms have been notorious for their poor compliance with the privacy legislation and quite obdurate Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday the Government introduced and read for a first and second time the Health Legislation Amendment (eHealth) Bill 2015.

The Bill is a 126 page behemoth which will warrant close scrutiny.  Briefly it is worth noting some notable features of the Bill:

• Part 3 provides for the collection, use and disclosure of the healthcare identifiers, identifying information and other information. The simplified outline describes the process as:

Read the rest of this entry »

In Our Inboxes, Ourselves Slate reports on tentative first steps to review and hopefully reform the outdated laws protecting the privacy of individuals email.  As the article makes clear the development of privacy protections when it comes to email was blighted by the fact that it was technology specific.  It was focused on the technology of the day.  The protections did not cover the developments of that technology. In this case email stored on servers is not covered and a warrant is not required to access it.  Similarly metadata Read the rest of this entry »

It has long been predicted that the increasing use of drones will prompt, eventually, some form of substantive legislative response. The reckless use of drones will bring that one more quickly.  Legislatures around the world have tended to ignore the issue though state legislatures have responded on an ad hoc basis, sometimes quite assertively.  The ongoing “Valley Fire”, in Northern California may prompt a change in the law.  As the BBC reports in Raging Valley fires could mean swift new drone laws that this reckless use of drones have disrupted the deployment of air tankers and helicopters. It is entirely predictable that Read the rest of this entry »

The Economist has long been interested in cyber security and privacy issues.  In Trouble shooting it highlights the longstanding (by internet standards) problem of hacking for commercial and national security gain.  China, see Fighting China’s hackers, and Russia, see Russian hacker group exploits satellites to steal data, hide tracks have stood out.

While the focus is on nation v nation cyber attacks and their impacts on commerce and IP there are valuable lessons to take at a local level, such as Read the rest of this entry »