Peter A Clarke

Password protection is critically important for both users of online accounts and those who operate the accounts.  An organisation has a responsibility to have a sufficiently rigorous password system to avoid random attacks.  One option is 2 factor authentication.  The Privacy Act does not specify the nature of the password protections that must be in place however, if the overseas experience is any guide, once a security breach is Read the rest of this entry »

With the passage of the metadata laws Australian telcos will be soon storing a huge amount of personal information belonging to Australians.  It is a huge task and a massive potential risk if there is a data breach. There is also the potential honeypot effect, with hackers knowing that a very significant amount of information will know be stored by telcos. In that context it is concerning that iinet has reportedly suffered a data breach in iiNet alert over security breach.  Interestingly the knowledge of the breach came about as a result of the hacker offering to sell personal information.  That is more common than one might think.  If Read the rest of this entry »

When Adobe suffered a data breach on 3 October 2013, or at least announced knowledge of a data breach, it was regarded as a totemic event.  Since then there have been breaches which have pushed the Adobe breach into the more mundane category. It affected the accounts of hundreds of thousands of Australians.  The data breach and notification by Adobe occurred Read the rest of this entry »

There is a familiar theme in dystopian sci fi stories; the government/corporation has used technology to control the ordinary citizens.  The technology Read the rest of this entry »

On 20 May the Pew Research Centre released its report on American’s attitude about Privacy, Security and Surveillance.

Interestingly the report shows the public to be more sophisticated on the issue of and need for privacy, in particular their Read the rest of this entry »

The UK Information commissioner has issued the South Wales Police with a swinging £160,000 fine for losing a highly sensitive Read the rest of this entry »

The health industry maintains an affection, if not fetish, for facsimile machines. In my very recent experience specialists and general practitioners have demonstrated a reliance for fax machines over the electronic mail. This has led to Read the rest of this entry »

The Victorian Police LEAP database has had chronic and serious privacy breaches over the years (see here).  And the problem continues with the Herald Sun reporting Read the rest of this entry »

The US Patent Office has made public patent application 20150120094, Unmanned Aerial Delivery System.  It was filed in Read the rest of this entry »

The Privacy Commissioner has released the last tranche of draft guides:

• Chapter 2 – Privacy Complaint handling process,
• Chapter 5 – Determinations,
• Chapter 6 – Injunctions.

The draft chapters are open for consultation until Read the rest of this entry »