Cyber security

How a Brit landed an Australian innovation visa after hacking the government’s foreign affairs website

- January 9, 2026 3 MIN READ

A British cybersecurity expert has landed a coveted tech visa for exceptional talent after he hacked an Australian government department and exposed a “critical vulnerability”. Jacob Riggs, a British national with more than a decade of experience in the cyber sector, was granted an 858 National Innovation visa in December, less than a year after… Read more »

Global tech

I no longer use Meta because one of the world’s most sophisticated tech companies can’t tell when my account’s been hacked

- June 30, 2025 2 MIN READ

When Sue Keay’s Facebook account was hacked, Meta didn’t warn her of the obvious problem, it preferred to go nuclear and deleted all her accounts. It’s a reminder that digital sovereignty matters. There used to be a lot of different ways that people could connect with me but please know that you are no longer… Read more »

Cyber security

Hacking at Western Sydney University that led to a former student’s arrest all began with discounted campus parking

- June 26, 2025 2 MIN READ

A former Western Sydney University student has been arrested and charged with allegedly hacking the institution over several years after initially seeking to exploit systems to get discounted parking. The 27-year-old woman was arrested at a property in the Western Sydney suburb of Kingswood on Wednesday, where she was charged with 20 offences including accessing… Read more »

Cyber security

Ticketmaster is the latest company to leave Australians exposed with data hack

- June 1, 2024 2 MIN READ

Australian consumers may have had their personal data compromised in an alleged data breach impacting ticketing and events giant Ticketmaster. Hacking group ShinyHunters claims to have stolen 1.3 terabytes of data on 560 million Ticketmaster customers globally, including names, addresses, credit card details and phone numbers. The group is reportedly seeking $756,000 ($US500,000) for a… Read more »

data in glasses, surveillance
Cyber security

A coder put a massive flaw in Linux for hacker access. Here are the lessons learned

- April 8, 2024 4 MIN READ

Outside the world of open-source software, it’s likely few people would have heard about XZ Utils, a small but widely used tool for data compression in Linux systems. But late last month, security experts uncovered a serious and deliberate flaw that could leave networked Linux computers susceptible to malicious attacks. The flaw has since been… Read more »

cyber hacking
Cyber security

The data breach at DNA biotech 23andMe reveal the risks of interconnected data

- October 30, 2023 3 MIN READ

On Oct. 6, news broke that 23andMe, the genomics company that collects genetic material from thousands of people for ancestry and genetic predisposition tests, had a massive data breach. But as it turns out, the company’s servers were not hacked. Rather, hackers targeted hundreds of individual user accounts — allegedly those that had repeated passwords.… Read more »

Atlassian, Mike Cannon-Brookes, Scott Farquhar.
Business

Atlassian to acquire US video messaging startup Loom for $1.5 billion

- October 13, 2023 2 MIN READ

Australian workplace software giant Atlassian is spending US$975 million (A$1.5bn) to acquire seven-year-old US video messaging startup Loom. The deal represents around 2% of Atlassian’s  (NASDAQ: TEAM) current market capital of around US$48 billion. But it’s also something of a bargain, with the price less than two-thirds of Loom’s peak valuation of US$1.53 billion in… Read more »

Cyber security

Children’s charity The Smith Family is the latest victim of cyber hackers

- November 24, 2022 < 1 MIN READ

The Smith Family, which helps disadvantaged kids succeed through education, is the latest target of cyber hackers in the wake of attacks on Optus, MediBank and other Australian corporates. The national charity believes the primary motive of the attack was an attempt to steal funds, but the hackers were unsuccessful. However, the personal information of… Read more »

Cyber security

Australia’s talking tough on a new cyber taskforce to ‘hack the hackers’, but that also puts a target on our national back

- November 17, 2022 3 MIN READ

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 the hackers” behind the recent Medibank data breach. The taskforce will be a first-of-its-kind permanent, joint collaboration between Australian Federal… Read more »

Cyber security

It looks like corporate Australia’s key response to a raft of damaging data hacks is to hire more PR spinners

- November 2, 2022 3 MIN READ

Businesses are girding corporate communications teams with cyber security specialists as executives watch the cyber security disasters at Optus and Medibank play out in front of their eyes – and consider how they would manage the public fallout from a similar incident. The impact of the recent spate of breaches is evident at the ANZ… Read more »

Cyber security

Experts explain how the current rash of company hacks is part of a growing criminal business model for stolen data

- October 27, 2022 3 MIN READ

New details have emerged on the severity of the Medibank hack, which has now affected all users. Optus, Medibank, Woolworths, and, last Friday, electricity provider Energy Australia are all now among the household names that have fallen victim to a data breach. If it seems like barely a week goes by without news of another… Read more »

MediBank
Cyber security

‘DISTRESSING DEVELOPMENT’: The Medibank data breach is much worse than first thought

- October 25, 2022 3 MIN READ

Medibank has reported a “distressing development” regarding its unfolding cyber incident, as “a series of additional files” received from a criminal party have been found to include detailed Medibank customer data. The health insurance provider first reported “unusual activity” on its network on 13 October – and it was initially believed no customer data had been removed… Read more »

Cyber security

The Optus hacker says they deleted the stolen data, but here’s what experts want you to know

- September 29, 2022 4 MIN READ

Shortly after Australian telecommunications company Optus announced the identity data of millions of customers had been stolen, a person claiming to be the hacker announced they would delete the data for US$1 million. When Optus didn’t pay, the purported hacker published 10,000 stolen records and threatened to release ten thousand more every day until the… Read more »

Robin Hood,
Cryptocurrency

A hacker stole a record in $831 million in cryptocurrency – then started giving it back

- August 12, 2021 3 MIN READ

A hacker pulled off one of the biggest cryptocurrency heists in history by transferring $831 million worth of cryptocurrency off the Poly Network platform, only to start giving the assets back the next day. Poly Network announced the attack on Tuesday night, saying it had been attacked on the Binance Smart Chain, Ethereum, and Polygon… Read more »