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'; echo 'The post Fifield Fixes 5G Spectrum Limits appeared first on Smart Office.
]]>The new limits of 60MHz in metropolitan areas and 80MHz in regional areas come ahead of an auction of 125MHz of 5G spectrum in the 3.6GHz band, to be held later this year. This will severely limit the ability of Optus and NBN Co to participate, as they already hold significant spectrum in these bands.
It will also handicap newcomer TPG, which needs spectrum for the planned launch of its mobile services.
Fifield said the limits would allow for a competitive auction process and prevent any one bidder from acquiring enough spectrum to preclude other telcos from rolling out 5G networks.
He said the limits had been set following careful consideration of advice from the ACCC, which had consulted with relevant parties.
Said Fifield: “These auction limits promote competition in the telecommunications industry, while ensuring this scarce spectrum is put to its highest-value use. The 3.6GHz band is recognised internationally as a key band for telcos to roll out new 5G networks.”
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]]>The post NSW Wallopers To Carry NEC Portable Fingerprint Scanners appeared first on Smart Office.
]]>The scanners will allow officers to register and verify identities on the go, removing the need to return to their stations. The scanners will also alert them to outstanding warrants and other information on suspects.
They will enable almost instantaneous searching and enrolment of biometric data on national databases by officers in the field, a spokesperson said. Such databases include the national automated fingerprint identification system (NAFIS) and – when complete – Australia’s biometrics identification services platform.
The roll out comes more than two years after NSW Police approached vendors seeking such a system.
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]]>The post Chinese Attacks Penetrating Oz Government Nets: ABC appeared first on Smart Office.
]]>Austrade and the Defence Department’s elite Defence Science Technology Group, have both suffered significant cyber infiltrations by hackers based in China, according to Four Corners.
Four Corners has claimed that Australian satellite company Newsat, which went into administration last year, was so comprehensively infiltrated that its entire network had to be rebuilt in secret.
The Prime Minister’s cyber security adviser, Alastair MacGibbon, told the program the Government is “attacked on a daily basis” but declined to elaborate. “We don’t talk about all the breaches that occur,” he said. ”
Former CIA chief Michael Hayden, a former US National Security Agency head, said Australia and the US should harden up their defences to protect their data.
A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Canberra denied China had conducted any cyber espionage against Australian interests, calling such allegations “totally groundless” and “false clichés”. “Like other countries, China suffers from serious cyber attacks and is one of the major victims of hacking attacks in the world,” he said.
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]]>The post Oz Organisations Report 63 Data Breaches In Just Six Weeks appeared first on Smart Office.
]]>It that rate continues, Australia can expect to see more than 500 breaches reported across Australia by the end of the year. But that number could rise significantly as more organisations come to grips with the new regime – and discover the huge penalties for not reporting.
The 63 reports, lodged with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) contrast with just 114 breaches reported in the entire 2016–17 financial year, when reporting was voluntary.
The numbers for the first six weeks of the new regime, which began on February 22, showed that health services providers were responsible for the single largest number of notifications (15), followed by businesses that supply “legal, accounting and management services”.
Organisations in the finance, education and not-for-profit sectors were also implicated.
However not all breaches were instigated by cyber criminals, the OIAC has revealed: human error in fact was listed as the most common cause.
“The majority of data breaches reported to the OAIC involved ‘contact information’, such as an individual’s name, e-mail address, home address or phone number,” the OAIC said. “This is distinct from ‘identity information’, which refers to information used to confirm an individual’s identity, such as driver licence numbers and passport numbers.”
However, some entities also reported data breaches that involved individuals’ tax file numbers, financial details, such as bank account or credit card numbers, and even health information.
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]]>The post ‘Train-wreck’: Privacy Team Calls For Tougher Legislation Down Under appeared first on Smart Office.
]]>It says such legislation has been recommended by a succession of law reform bodies, and suggests an alternative move could be to strengthen the office of the national Privacy Commissioner, describing it as “an under-resourced and timid agency that responds slowly and weakly whenever there’s a problem.”
The foundation contrasts the local office’s response to the recent Facebook privacy scandal with that of its New Zealand counterpart.
“It took 15 days for the OAIC to move in response to this privacy train wreck … [whereas] the New Zealand Privacy Commissioner has strongly condemned Facebook for disregarding New Zealand privacy law. New Zealand isn’t frightened of the biggest bully on the social media block. Nor should we.”
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]]>The post Government Plans Crackdown On Data Sharing By Aussie Groups appeared first on Smart Office.
]]>This follows a number of international data-sharing scandals, most recently the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica affair, which saw Facebook selling its users’ personal information to advertisers. That will be strictly prohibited under Australia’s new regime.
Legislation now being drawn up by government agencies will, among other things, include establishment of a “consumer data right” to which banking and telecoms outfits will have to adhere.
The strict new privacy protections will be enforced by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), according to Canberra reports.
Similar legislation, already under way in the UK, requires provision of “concise, intelligible and easily accessible” privacy notices, with people able to control how their data is organised. Fines of up to €20 million (A$32 million), or 4 per cent of global turnover, will be enforced for outfits that breach the UK provisions.
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]]>The post $8m Stuff-Up: AEC Lambasted Over Senate Poll Fiasco appeared first on Smart Office.
]]>It accuses the commission of failing to achieve value for money, and of accepting IT security risks above its usual tolerance.
The AEC paid Fuji Xerox a total of $37.2 million to develop and deliver the Senate ballot paper scanning system. Fuji Xerox was the only supplier asked to quote.
Despite the millions handed over, the ANAO said the AEC “did not own the intellectual or physical property that would result from this expenditure”, and the eventual cost included a $4.1 million “contribution” for equipment and infrastructure needed to scan the ballots.
The report adds: “The AEC has not demonstrably achieved value for money in its procurement of Senate scanning services. It has not used competitive pressure to drive value, nor given due consideration to costs in its procurement decision-making.”
In reply, Fuji Xerox has pointed to the “very tight” three-month window that resulted in the changes in Senate voting. “Fuji Xerox believes that the solution provided …was a world-first in regards to technical and operational delivery in a very tight design, development and implementation timeframe,” it says.
The AEC has also hit back at the ANAO report, with electoral commissioner Tom Rogers saying the Fuji Xerox solution was an “impressive accomplishment” against the backdrop of Senate voting changes.
“”In the extraordinarily short period of three months, and without prior warning, the AEC successfully developed and then implemented a robust, effective, technologically-advanced and entirely new system for counting, under high levels of scrutiny, some 15 million Senate votes in multiple locations around Australia,” Rogers said.
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