Displaying items by tag: Peter Dutton

The Government says it has successfully blocked scammers from sending text messages appearing to come from legitimate government sender IDs, including Centrelink, myGov, and the Australian Taxation Office.

Cybersecurity company Fortinet has recently completed its investment in the Federal Government Integration and Innovation Centre in Canberra, which is set to open in the fourth quarter of 2021.

Macquarie Telecom Group has appointed the former head of the Australian Defence Force Information Warfare division, Maj Gen Marcus Thompson AM PhD, as part of its newly-established federal government advisory board. 

The Federal Minister for Home Affairs, Peter Dutton, and his office say that "ransomware continues to be a prevalent global threat, and cyber criminals pose a significant risk to Australians and Australian businesses."

The NSW Council for Civil Liberties has slammed the he proposed authorisation of coercive search powers for the Australian Federal Police and Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission in a current bill — the Surveillance Legislation Amendment (Identify and Disrupt) Bill 2020 — saying the warrants sought are not traditional evidence gathering tools, but effectively tools to prevent crime before it took place.

A Senate panel chaired by Tasmanian Labor Senator Helen Polley has said it considers the proposed authorisation of coercive search powers for the Australian Federal Police and Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission in a current bill — the Surveillance Legislation Amendment (Identify and Disrupt) Bill 2020 — could unduly trespass on personal rights and liberties.

The Law Council of Australia, the body that represents the country's legal profession, has urged the Federal Government to provide enough time for Parliament to scrutinise the new online surveillance bill that was introduced on Thursday.

The Federal Government has presented a bill in Parliament that would give the AFP and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission three new warrants in order that they can handle serious criminal acts online.

The Australian Government is investing $1.67 billion in its 2020 cyber security strategy which it says will protect and strengthen the security and resilience of Australia’s critical infrastructure, and ensure law enforcement agencies have the powers and technical capabilities to detect, target, investigate and disrupt cyber crime – including on the dark Web.

It now appears to be perfectly clear what kind of public broadcaster the Coalition Government wants: a pliant set of robots who scrape and curtsy every time their glorious masters are sighted. Something more in the style of India's Doordarshan and All India Radio.

The main question around the announcement of a cyber attack by the Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday morning is simple: is this a new attack? Or is it part of the port scanning and probing that goes on every single day?

The US Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security has, along with government ministers from the other Five Eyes countries - the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand - published a list of what it calls voluntary principles to curb the scourge of online child sexual abuse.

The Federal Government has introduced legislation into parliament to make it possible for foreign countries to access stored or intercepted communications and telecommunications data within Australia, with Australia able to have reciprocal rights.

When the Federal Government issued a discussion paper in September last year indicating that it wanted to use the same as the basis for drafting a new cyber security strategy for 2020, it was quite clear that what was being looked at was a bigger role for the Australian Signals Directorate.

Another confrontation may be brewing between the FBI and Apple, after the US domestic intelligence agency asked the company to help decrypt data on two iPhones which belong to a man named Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani who is suspected of carrying out a shooting that killed three people at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida last month.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has slammed the chief executives of Facebook and Apple, Mark Zuckerberg and Tim Cook respectively, accusing them of being "morally bankrupt on the issue of encryption and protecting children".

The Australian Government wants to know what you look like when you are watching porn online so that it can use its face verification system to deny access to those below the legal age (which in this case is 16).

Lobby group Internet Australia has told the Australian Government it is “deeply concerned” over its request to Facebook to halt plans to introduce strong end-to-end encryption in its messaging systems.

Macquarie Government has called on the Australian Government to give greater focus to building critical sovereign capabilities in cyber security and IT to keep Australia competitive.

The Federal Government has indicated that it would like to play a much bigger role in managing cyber security incidents in Australia, releasing a discussion paper and inviting views from all and sundry towards drafting a cyber security strategy for 2020.