Complete Equipment Solutions Pty Ltd v Tesab Engineering Limited (A Company Registered in the United Kingdom, Company No. NI026214) [2016] VSC 253 (18 May 2016): Statutory demand, whether service within 21 period

May 19, 2016

In Complete Equipment Solutions Pty Ltd v Tesab Engineering Limited (A Company Registered in the United Kingdom, Company No. NI026214) [2016] VSC 253  Associate Justice Randall considered the question of service. This is not a common issue in modern day jurisprudence relating to statutory demands. In this case a failure to comply with the service requirements resulted in the plaintiff’s application being dismissed.

FACTS

The plaintiff, by originating process dated 9 November 2015,  made an application under s 459G of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) to set aside a statutory demand dated 14 October 2015 [1]. The court noted, with some annoyance, that the Read the rest of this entry »

Golden Taste Investment Pty Ltd v Laurence & Ors [2016] VSC 250 (16 May 2016): Summary judgment application by plaintiff

May 17, 2016

In Golden Taste Investment Pty Ltd v Laurence & Ors [2016] VSC 250 Derham AsJ considered the plaintiff’s application for summary judgment under section 63 of the Civil Procedure Act 2010.

FACTS

The plaintiff is the master franchisee for the Cacao Green and Red Mango franchises for Australia and operates retail stores in Victoria selling frozen yogurt and coffee products [2].

The first defendant (‘Daniel’) was a director and Read the rest of this entry »

Cabcharge data exposed

Cabcharge has had a data breach.  This was identified by Riskbased Security, a cyber security company based in Virginia, USA, while doing some research.  The researchers notified Cabcharge who took action to remedy the problem but did not reply to the notification and did not notify its customers of the exposure of data.  That data identified by Riskbased security included Read the rest of this entry »

Privacy Commissioner speech at launch of Privacy Awareness Week

The Privacy Commissioner has done what he does best.  Another speech.  This time for the launch of Privacy Awareness Week.

The speech Read the rest of this entry »

Cyber breach of Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation causes ructions in the US Congress

May 16, 2016

Data breaches are equal opportunity problems, they affect both the private sector and government agencies. With data breaches of government sites the problem is not so much economic as economic and, often times, political.  In the United States cyber breaches at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the agency that safeguards bank deposits, has caused both political and economic problems for the agency and raised the ire of Congress. In April it was reported that a cyber breach affected 44,000 of the FDIC’s customers which revealed inadequate security controls.  Even though the breach was Read the rest of this entry »

Global financial network SWIFT warns about malware targeting banks

May 15, 2016

Cyber attacks on banks are nothing new. Banks not surprisingly generally have better cybersecurity systems than most organisations, though not universally so.  One form of attack against banks (and here) is by means of malicious software, also known as malware. Malware is a regularly occurring problem with businesses and organisations of all types such as accountants, American Dental Association, government bodies, hotels and small businesses.

The global financial network SWIFT has issued a warning about a new very sophisticated malware threat which is obviously designed to exploit a vulnerability but has Read the rest of this entry »

Information Commissioner’s Office fines Blackpool Teaching Hospital Trust for posting private details of over 6,000 of its staff members on its website

The Information Commissioner’s Office (the “ICO”) has imposed another swingeing fine for a breach of the Data Protection Act, on this occasion an NHS Trust publishing the national insurance numbers, dates of birth, religious beliefs and sexual orientation of 6,574 members of its staff on its web site.  As a result the Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has been fined £185,000.  While the breach was egregious it was inadvertent. Even so, the distinction between inadvertent and deliberate goes more to penalty rather than Read the rest of this entry »

Michael Kirby calls for reform of privacy laws

May 4, 2016

The former High Court justice Michael Kirby has had a very long history with privacy and data protection issues.  He was Read the rest of this entry »

Gumtree suffers data breach

May 1, 2016

Gumtree has had a data breach of indeterminate proportions last week according to the Hackers steal Gumtree users’ personal details, Gumtree ‘fesses up to breach and personal information leak and Australian Gumtree users targeted in hacking attack, with personal details stolen.

The Government website, Staysmartonline has also highlighted the potential of phishing attacks now Read the rest of this entry »

UK Information Commissioner slaps enforcement notice on West Dunbartonshire Council for not having proper data protection training

One of the biggest challenges in privacy and data protection is having staff who use the data being properly trained and applying that training properly.  Having Read the rest of this entry »