Category: News

A long-term Australian Federal Police (AFP) investigation has resulted in the arrest of two men in two states allegedly involved in a campaign targeting Australian and international websites.

The AFP will allege in court that the two men claimed to be members of the online issue motivated group ‘Anonymous’.

Since 2012, people who claim to be members of ‘Anonymous’ have targeted a number of Australian government and corporate networks. These attacks have resulted in theft of personal data, defacement of websites and Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attacks causing websites to drop offline.

National Manager High Tech Crime Operations Tim Morris said attacks such as these can have a serious impact on government and business services.

“Hacking activities can affect everyone from small businesses right up to large government organisations,” said Assistant Commissioner Morris.

“These acts can cause serious disruption to government and business networks, which in turn can be catastrophic for people who rely on these networks to run their small business or administer their entitlements or personal finances.”

“The impairment or disruption of communications to or from computer networks is a criminal act and can have serious consequences; it is not harmless fun.”

AFP officers last night conducted search warrants at residential addresses in Penrith, NSW and Scarborough, WA.

A number of computer hard drives and other equipment were seized during the warrants. It is anticipated that it will take several months to analyse these items due to the amount of information stored on them.

It will be alleged in court that these two men were known to each other online and targeted organisations including a large internet service provider and web servers hosting Australian and Indonesian government websites.

A 40-year-old Scarborough (Western Australia) man was charged with:

Aid the unauthorised modification of Melbourne IT Limited computer network located in Brisbane, Queensland to cause impairment, contrary to Section 477.2 of the Criminal Code Act 1995 pursuant to Section 11.2 of the Criminal Code Act 1995; and

Unauthorised modification of Indonesian Government web servers, to cause impairment, contrary to Section 477.2 of the Criminal Code Act 1995.

An 18-year-old Penrith (New South Wales) man was charged with the following offences:

Unauthorised modification of data to Netspeed ISP located in Canberra, ACT, to cause impairment, contrary to Section 477.2 of the Criminal Code Act 1995

Unauthorised access to and modification of restricted data belonging to the ACT Long Service Leave Board, Canberra, ACT, contrary to 478.1 of the Criminal Code Act 1995.

 

UN Women launches global campaign to mark 20 years since the landmark women’s rights conference in Beijing.

The Beijing Platform for Action was launched at the 4th World Conference on Women in Beijing in September 1995. Attended by some 17,000 people, the Conference was a landmark event for gender rights as world leaders committed themselves to an agenda for women’s empowerment. This month UN Women is launching a global campaign to celebrate the gains made across the world over the last two decades, and raise awareness of the challenges that still remain before women can enjoy their full human rights equally with men.

The global campaign, called “Empowering Women, Empowering Humanity: Picture it!” centres on the 12 core areas in which gender equality requires progress, which include unequal access to education, health and justice; political marginalisation; and violence. The campaign aims to engage the public in mobilising political will to work towards gender equality.

The Australia National Committee is launching a program of activities to support the global campaign, beginning in June with a launch at Parliament House in Canberra. The campaign will run from May 2014 to September 2015, in time for the world conference which will discuss progress made on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

“The Beijing Platform for Action sets out a manifesto for women’s rights,” says the Executive Director of the Australian National Committee for UN Women, Julie McKay. “For the first time UN Member States acknowledged that gender equality was at the heart of the development agenda and that no economic or political progress could be made when half of the world was excluded from leadership roles.”

UN Women’s Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka notes that “during the past two decades much progress has been made in women’s legal rights, educational achievements, and participation in public life. But much still remains to be done to address gender wage gaps and unequal opportunities, low representation of women in leadership in public office and the private sector, child marriage, rampant violence and other violations against women and girls.”

“This anniversary of the Beijing Conference takes place at an historic moment,” stresses Mlambo-Ngcuka, “as the nations of the world are coming together to accelerate progress to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015 and define a new global development framework. We must seize this once-in-a-generation opportunity to position gender equality, women’s rights and women’s empowerment at the centre of the global agenda and make it a reality.”

The website of the Australia National Committee for UN Women will be regularly updated with details of the campaign: www.unwomen.org.au

Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey has been forced to defend his Federal Budget to the Not for Profit sector, saying that while the Coalition’s Budget may seem tough, society’s most vulnerable will end up paying unless “remedial action” is undertaken.

Speaking in Sydney at a post-budget lunch organised by the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) and attended by more than 200 sector leaders, Treasurer Hockey said: “If we don’t start to live within our means sooner or later the people most vulnerable in the community are going to be the ones most affected.

“This budget is not about being popular. Nor is it about making people happy. It’s about doing what we believe must be done to lift the quality of life that people are going to have into the future.”

Hockey delivered his first budget – coined by ACOSS as an attempt to ‘divide the nation’ – last week amid strong criticism from the Not for Profit sector.

The Treasurer’s defence however came as ACOSS released new figures that reveal that people on low and middle incomes will carry the overwhelming burden of repairing the Federal Budget.

“The burden of restoring the Budget will not be fairly shared,” ACOSS CEO Dr Cassandra Goldie said.

“Over the next four years, people and families living on low incomes will be expected to contribute over half the savings in the Budget (52 per cent), compared with less than one sixth coming from people on high incomes.

“More than $19 billion out of $37 billion (52 per cent) in budget savings in key programs and services over the next four years will come from reductions in spending on programs that mainly assist low and middle income earners. Only $5.7 billion (15 per cent) are tax increases or savings in programs mainly benefiting people on high incomes.”

At the ACOSS post-budget event yesterday the Treasurer said: “Unquestionably there has been an expansion of the welfare system over the years.

“But in extending what is deemed to be welfare, higher and higher up the pay scale and what it means is you can afford it while you’ve got money coming in but then when the money doesn’t come in how do you pare it back?

“What we’d really like to see is a strong, entirely sustainable safety net in Australia. And the balancing act is trying to reduce the spread of welfare but at the same time trying to ensure the welfare safety net is strong.”

Dr Goldie said that while there were some elements of the budget the sector was pleased to see, they were obviously hoping to see some very different policies.

“Why have we now seen a budget – which we said at the time and we maintain this view – that seems to divide us… where we know that the level of poverty is most entrenched in the experience of young unemployed people, single mothers and children living in poverty and the biggest hit is on those lowest income families,” she questioned.

“And we have not yet done anything in this budget to look at the assets test on the aged pension, we’ve got people who are able to own their own multi-million dollar home and still be able to claim a part pension.

“That’s what throws up to us why we don’t have a budget that’s delivered on targeting government funding where it’s needed the most.”

But the Treasurer denied that the government was seeking to divide the nation, saying the claim could not be further from the truth.

Among the key themes to emerge at the lunch were concerns around youth, single parents, families and unemployment.

The Treasurer appeared lost for words when pressed on questions around the cuts to the family tax benefits by National Council for Single Mothers and their Children chief executive Terese Edwards, the Treasurer stalled, unable to provide an answer.

“I implore you to hit the pause button, do not proceed; particularly in regards to slashing family tax benefits and I would really like to hear from you that you may reconsider,” Edwards said.

Hockey attempted to reassure sector leaders that the Government was interested in ongoing conversation.

“It’s not the last word. It’s the first word,” he said. “And I am here to engage in constructive dialogue with ACOSS and others for our term in government.”

Author: Jackie Hanafie of Pro Bono Australia

See more at: http://www.probonoaustralia.com.au/news/2014/05/hockey-defends-%E2%80%98remedial%E2%80%99-budget-not-profits#sthash.Tz2w1AbH.gQbZUtL7.dpuf

 

The Queensland Police demonstrated today their highly militarised approach to the protection of world leaders visiting Brisbane for the G20 in five months. In a demonstration of firepower showing bomb detonations, baton charges and semi-automatic weapon deployment, the police left no doubt that all energy would be focused on ensuring the official G20 summit goes as smoothly as possible and that any citizens who wish to express a different view will be severely curtailed.

Westender’s coverage of the preparations for G20 over the last six months has indicated a wide diversity of views regarding the value of the summit and the appropriateness of the government’s preparation.

We have faithfully reported the police requests for Issue Motivated Groups (IMGs) to register their intent to raise their issues, legal advice regarding the pros and cons of dressing in black during the summit, the calls for indigenous people to hold a first nations conference at the same time, the possible impacts on business and the need for an alternative summit proposing different futures than those that will be discussed by world leaders.

The police emphasis on a military response to ensure the orderly progression of the official, summit, though, leaves no doubt that there will be little sympathy expended on residents, local businesses, indigenous people or activists. According to police spoksepeople, those seeking an alternative future to a World Bank dominated view of macro-economics should register as Issue Motivated Groups and sit meekly on the side-lines with police approved signs quietly stating the reasons they do not think world leaders have a monopoly on intelligence.

Given  the government’s stridency on this and its refusal to countenance alternative points of view, it is important to air the alternative view. Many Westenders are more than happy for the world leaders to come and drop $20million on 4101, we are even happy for them to bring their security guards, dominate hotel bookings, bars, nightclubs and what ever other venues they choose to entertain themselves at.

What they do not want to see is the nation’s and the state’s precious resources squandered on the opression of those who express a different opinion. It is clear to any thinking person that:

• an economy in which the top one percent have more wealth than half the world’s population is not healthy;
• that a world in which one billion people do not have clean drinking water or sufficient food and so die an undignified and horrid death while rich nations throw away mountains of  rotting unwanted food is unfair;
• or that the 80% of business owners who generate 57% of the wealth despite ongoing welfare to global corporations deserve a better go.

It is not clear that these views are best expressed in a designated protest area at the periphery of the action, or that police in military gear with semi-automatic weapons are best placed to decide which views should be heard and which views should not.

Westender’s role is to ensure that those views have a wider forum. If that puts us at odds with the official line on the G20 then so be it. If that limits our capacity to profit from the official largesse as the $20m is spread around the community then we will wear that as the cost of putting an honestly held alternative view.

Even if you do not agree with us, we hope that you will acknowledge and respect our integrity.

Beware online services offering to find lost super, says local man, Paul Judd.

“I got an email offering to find lost super, pressed the button and ‘BOOM’ my super disappeared,” he told Westender.

Of course, the super was there somewhere, it just took a bit of a journey to find it, and along the way Paul discovered some of the pitfalls that can occur when you roll your super over.

“I was lucky that I bumped into Suzy. Yellow Brick Road went out of their way to get everything in place before they touched a cent.”

Independent research carried out for Yellow Brick Road indicates that people living within two kilometres of West End have one quarter of a billion dollars in lost super. Yellow Brick Road is running a campaign to help people find and consolidate that superannuation, carefully.

“It is often young people who are most affected,” said Ms Butterworth. She said because they are not carefully managing their superannuation, they do not notice when employees open new funds for them and they end up with multiple superfunds all with small amounts of money and all costing them annual fees.

“It is not until they start to calculate how much they will need when they retire, that they give it any thought.”

Paul Judd is one example of a local in exactly that position.

At 40, Paul is beginning to calculate the amount he can save over the years that he will enjoy working.

“I want to retire before seventy,” he said.

His mistake, though, was to respond to an email that offered to consolidate his superannuation money, automatically.

Ms Butterworth helped Paul find his super, sort out the insurance and invest more aggressively than the average managed fund, that matched his appetite for risk, to yield a higher return and give him a better lifestyle in his retirement.

“You have to choose between spending less now, spending less later, or working longer,” she said. As we age, the options begin to narrow, so the key is to start early.

“If Paul had come to me ten years ago, he would be in a completely different position,” said Ms Butterworth.

The Australian Government has released a series of guides aimed at helping small businesses adopt and use cloud computing services with confidence.

Cloud computing is the term commonly used to describe the delivery of an ICT service over the Internet, on demand.

Cloud computing is already proving to be revolutionary for small businesses, as it significantly lowers cost barriers to ICT adoption. KPMG estimates the increased adoption of cloud services in Australian firms could boost the Australian economy by $3.32 billion a year.

The guides published today will assist Australian small businesses to be part of this revolution. They cover a range of topics from questions to ask your cloud provider, to legal issues to consider in the cloud. The guides are published on the digitalbusiness.gov.au website.

These cloud guides have only been possible because of the development of a longer, more detailed ‘Stock Take’ of regulation that impacts the cloud services market in Australia. The Cloud Computing Regulatory Stock Take provides an overview of regulation affecting the Australian cloud market and how this might impact the take up of services.

The Stock Take aims to give consumers confidence and industry certainty about the regulatory arrangements that apply to cloud computing.

The Government welcomes additional comment by industry, consumer stakeholders or the public at large. In particular, the Government would be interested in views on whether the regulation in this space is overly complex or burdensome.

More information about the Stock Take and how to provide feedback is available at www.communications.gov.au/cloud