Peter A Clarke

Cnet in Hack of hospital chain leads to theft of up to 4.5M users’ data reports on a very significant breach of security affecting a Health group operating 206 hospitals.  The largest breach of hospital patient information since 2009, when the Government started tracking breaches.  The reported concern is that the suspected goal of the data breach is to facilitate future attacks using the data obtained, such as through personal information which can Read the rest of this entry »

Zndet in Six ways to secure your vulnerable network router  sets out some very sensible steps that any organisation Read the rest of this entry »

The Canberra Times in Federal privacy authorities called in over Centrelink breach reports on personal information of Centrelink clients left in public. The Privacy Commissioner has been notified.  So far there has been no reference to any investigation on the OAIC homepage.  This will be Read the rest of this entry »

The quality and quantity of data security by organisations in Australia is, anectodally, quite poor.  The common law and statutory regulation remain inadequate in Read the rest of this entry »

In an ongoing series the Privacy Commissioner has released another video on matters privacy.  This addition to the collection is Is my real estate agent allowed to take photos in my house?

The youtube of the video is found here:

Is real estate agent allowed to take photos of my house

The transcript Read the rest of this entry »

The Australian in Australians flock to VPNs to avoid data retention reports on consumers response to the Government’s data retention plans.  It is interesting to see how the market responds to government proposals – when they are made public.  It is Read the rest of this entry »

The Age reports in Australian teen uncovers security flaw in PayPal the continuing role of a white hat hacker in showing up flaws in the Paypal website which potentially allowed a hacker to by pass its two factor authentication system.  Unfortunately Read the rest of this entry »

According to a survey of 2,000 US consumers found that 44% will not use mobile banking services and 48% will not use billing payment apps. In a similar survey in the UK the figures are even starker with 53% not being prepared to use mobile banking services, half avoiding money transfer apps and 24% not feeling safe shopping on their handsets.  That apps are causing concern for consumers should not come as a surprise.  The weaknesses of privacy protection in apps are Read the rest of this entry »

The Safe Harbor Framework between the USA and Europe purporting to ensure that data from the EU regarding its citizen’s personal information would be handled in a manner consistent with EU privacy and data collection regulations has always been a difficult child.  It continues to be a troubled adolescent as evidenced by the complaint filed by the Center for Digital Democracy with the Federal Trade Commission regarding the operation of 30 companies.  In its public announcement CDD Files Complaint on U.S./EU Safe Harbor for Data Privacy at FTC/ Filing Reveals Failure of U.S. Agreement to Protect European Privacy it Read the rest of this entry »

The Harvard Business Review has recently conducted an interview with 2 Oxford academics, David Upton and Sadie Creese on a recent paper they wrote titled The Danger from Withinwhich will be published in the September edition of the magazine.   It is particularly prescient given Read the rest of this entry »