Mamoun Alazab, Charles Darwin University The Australian government is launching an offensive against cybercriminals, following a data breach that has exposed millions of people’s personal information. On November 12, Minister for Cyber Security Clare O’Neil announced a taskforce to “hack…
Jeffrey Foster, Macquarie University and Jennifer J. Williams, Macquarie University On October 13 one of Australia’s largest medical insurers, Medibank, announced it had suffered a cyberattack – one which has resulted in the breached personal details of 9.7 million customers…
Mohiuddin Ahmed, Edith Cowan University and Paul Haskell-Dowland, Edith Cowan University Medibank is still refusing to pay a ransom of an undisclosed amount to cybercriminals, despite the hackers now allegedly threatening to release the stolen data on the dark web.…
Jane Andrew, University of Sydney; Max Baker, University of Sydney, and Monique Sheehan, University of Sydney The Optus data breach, which has affected close to 10 million Australians, has sparked calls for changes to Australia’s privacy laws, placing limits on…
Nathan Dumlao / Unsplash Sascha-Dominik (Dov) Bachmann, University of Canberra and Mohiuddin Ahmed, Edith Cowan University Millions of Australians have had their privacy breached in recent cyber attacks against Optus, Medibank and other companies. Cybercriminals stole sensitive health and financial…
Federal government agencies, from the Treasury Department to the National Nuclear Security Administration, have been compromised by the attack. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images Paulo Shakarian, Arizona State University So much remains unknown about what is now being called the Sunburst hack,…
Timothy Summers, University of Maryland When a cyberattack occurs, ethical hackers are called in to be digital detectives. In a certain sense, they are like regular police detectives on TV. They have to search computer systems to find ways an…
Saheli Datta Burton, UCL and Madeline Carr, UCL The wearable technology market is booming, with half a billion wearables sold globally in 2020. Apps on these devices, or the devices themselves, often claim to monitor our health to spot illnesses,…
Paulo Shakarian, Arizona State University North Korean hackers have staged an audacious attack targeting cybersecurity researchers, many of whom work to counter hackers from places like North Korea, Russia, China and Iran. The attack involved sophisticated efforts to deceive specific…
William Akoto, University of Denver Last month, SpaceX became the operator of the world’s largest active satellite constellation. As of the end of January, the company had 242 satellites orbiting the planet with plans to launch 42,000 over the next…
Nir Kshetri, University of North Carolina – Greensboro Cyberattacks have hit schools and colleges harder than any other industry during the pandemic. In 2020, including the costs of downtime, repairs and lost opportunities, the average ransomware attack cost educational institutions…
Syed Wajid Ali Shah, Deakin University; Jongkil Jay Jeong, Deakin University, and Robin Doss, Deakin University It’s now well known that usernames and passwords aren’t enough to securely access online services. A recent study highlighted more than 80% of all…