schadenfreude n.Pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others. n.Malicious enjoyment derived from observing someone else’s misfortune. n.delight in another person’s misfortune Welcome to the 12 days of Hackmas where we go through 12 of the most surprising, amazing and disturbing Cyber hacks that have ever been pulled off. Why? Well it’s not all schadenfreude – there’s some great

Everything in the world of backup was going just fine before the Cloud came along. Server rooms used to look the same: Racks with servers slotted in. The beauty of this setup (from a backup point of view) was that you could see where your data sat and therefore, you knew everything about the security

Disney+ is the newest entry into the online streaming market, offering a wide range of old and new Disney content. Day 1 didn’t go so well with the service unable to keep up with the high demand. Week 1 got even worse when it was found that thousands of user accounts had been breached and

It’s the worst nightmare of any business owner (or computer user for that matter). You log onto your computer, expecting it to work just the same as it always has, only to find a ransom note demanding something called Bitcoin. That’s exactly the state that The Heat Group, a large cosmetics company, found itself in

Yep. You absolutely should. And stuff chewing gum into your laptop microphone. There are cameras and lenses everywhere. On the side of buildings, in your phone and in your laptop. Do we even notice them anymore given they’re so prevalent? And the reality is, someone could be watching you at any moment – even when

It’s hard to fathom what really makes a TV smart, but the marketing geniuses at just about every manufacturer seem to think that a “Smart TV” is a TV that can connect to the internet and stream content. Basically it means Netflix etc. can be played via your TV remote. The reality now that many

Basic ‘cyber hygiene’ is an ongoing area of concern in the financial services sector. Since issuing their latest Cyber Security guidelines in July 2019, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority has received 36 data breach notifications Executive board member Geoff Summerhayes warns that local financial services providers were still making basic errors. “With some cyber-incidents taking

Keen followers of my articles will recall a previous article named “Why do phishing email be writtened such bad english? Turns out it’s intentional…” In that article, I explored why phishing emails contained such terrible and obvious spelling and grammatical errors. But I didn’t address why so many scammers say that they’re from Nigeria. A

Note: We sat on this post for 24 months intentionally to give enough breathing space between the events laid out in the article, hoping that the business named got things right in the end… As reported on Smart Company, the Outdoor Media Association’s (OMA) had a ransomware “hack” in July 2017. Why do we say “hack”?

If your business works with an Insurance Broker, then chances are you’ve had a discussion about “Cyber Insurance”. What is Cyber Insurance? The past 10 years have seen massive changes in the way that companies communicate and do business. Many businesses have undergone some form of digital transformation which (should have) created improvements to their

First things first: Disaster Recovery (DR) is not backup. What is backup? Backing up is simply taking a copy of your data and storing it. Backup has a number of rules that you can follow, with a old favourite being the 3-2-1 rule: Have 3 copies of your data, on 2 different types of media

Gosh, sometimes being human is just plain hard! Flicking a switch to turn on a light. Remembering how much water to drink. Wondering if your hair has been brushed with the correct force. What about working out where your cows are? The “Internet of Things” or IoT connects so called “Smart Devices” to the internet.

It could happen to anyone. You’re busy working away at your local hipster cafe, distracted by the coffee that you’re now required to construct whilst trying to hold a conversation with your colleague. And whilst you’re asking yourself the question “why did I pay $8 for this experience” you notice something is missing. Your bag

How to choose the best Managed IT Service Provider in Melbourne – top 5 five Choosing a Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) can be a daunting task. If you have an existing relationship you know you’ve either outgrown their capabilities or something has gone wrong in the relationship. 1-Knowledgeable Account Manager Knowledge is absolutely key.

Put your hand up if you use the same password across multiple online accounts? 99% of the internet just put their hands up. Firstly, let’s cover off why using the same password is such a bad idea. Your username and password are a combination that you give to a provider. The provider uses that combination

How comfortable with Google having a copy of everything you’ve searched… ever? Unless you move to a private search engine DuckDuckGo, then your search engine still likely has a copy of everything you’ve ever searched. Let’s take Google for example. Check out your Google Search History: searches, locations, interests. They’ve recorded it all. Deleting your Google

Let’s set the scene: All your icons are missing. Years of photos, gone. Your computer is like a digital wasteland with nothing on it – except for a digital ransom note “Warning: All your files are encrypted! Decrypting all your files is only possible with a key and decrypt program which is on our secret

Facebook Messenger’s ‘Secret Conversations’ allow end-to-end encryption, but the feature is opt-in. Here’s how to turn it on and use it. End-to-end encryption means that your conversations are encrypted from one device to another so the conversation can’t be accessed by anyone other than the sender and the intended receiver. Facebook’s new encryption, appropriately, is

Are you still trying to remove that dark veil of mystery from the practice of IT management? Like many small-to-medium-size businesses, you’ve turned to a Managed Service Provider (MSP). But how can you tell if your current Manages Services Provider is the right one for you? Value for money can be hard to determine, because

Such is the state of computing these days, software providers are continually releasing security and bug patches. Microsoft has what’s known as “Patch Tuesday”, which is a monthly release of security and bug fixes. The quality of these updates is often questionable as well, with the latest October 2018 (1809) release leaving some users reporting

Cyber risk is a complex issue that we all wish didn’t exist. 60% of businesses experienced a disruptive security breach in 2016 and there’s a global shortage of cyber security experts. So surely the Government will have the answers! And we all love reading Government reports… right? Here’s the most important one you’ll never read

Small business? Downtime is not an option, so what can you do? What is business continuity? It’s more than just backup… Find out more here #businesscontinuity

Ransomware is everywhere these days. According to a recent study, 94% of IT providers reported ransomware bypassed top-of-the-line anti-virus software. If ransomware makes it past your front line of defense, what’s your next move? Protect your business with these tips

The information in this article should be treated as a guide only and not legal advice. Please seek professional legal advice should you require further clarification. The quick summary The Privacy Amendment (Notifiable Data Breaches) Bill 2016 was passed by the Senate as an amendment to the Australian Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and will come

A Google study found that phishing attacks are more efficient than data breaches at getting criminals into victim’s account and that the average person still has can’t pick a good pass word. The recent study was carried out in conjunction with University of California at Berkley and the International Computer Science Institute. Researchers conducted a year-long