Recovering data from tapes isn't trivial but if it's not encrypted then I assure you any junior hacker could have posted the data up on the dark web and asked for help where the resources would be available. As for notifiable data breach, I think it certainly should be now under the new legislation as unless it was encrypted then there is a risk that harm could be caused to someone given the amount of data and type of data makes it worth spending effort on recovering off the lost tapes. Of course the legislation is very open ended and open to wide interpretation here so without actual prosecuted breaches and fines we will never know how the courts take these breaches of the privacy act
Posts by Jonbays
27 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Nov 2012
Commbank data loss: Non-disclosure was pretty reasonable
Fancy that, Fancy Bear: LoJack anti-laptop theft tool caught phoning home to the Kremlin
Facebook confirms Cambridge Analytica harvested profile data
10/10 would patch again: Big Red plasters 'easily exploitable' backdoor in Oracle Identity Manager
You publish 20,000 clean patches, but one goes wrong and you're a PC-crippler forever
Hospital injects $60,000 into crims' coffers to cure malware infection
We translated Intel's crap attempt to spin its way out of CPU security bug PR nightmare
The Intel security folks must be glad to be at arms length and McAfee again, all this PR spin no substance makes a mockery of the companies security posture. Someone other than a hacker somewhere must have been able to see the potential for side channel attacks and remediate them in the core design surely?
Kaspersky dragged into US govt's trashcan as weaponized blockchain agile devops mulled
Tenable's response to folks upset at AWOL features: A 150-emails-a-minute spam storm
ATO, Dept of Immigration wrist-slapped for failing security audit, again
Independent Audit required here
Clearly they have been reading "yes minister" and are not going to comply merely stall. The ANAO should Audit them and if they fail to meet agreed implementation timelines then Finance need to withhold funding and restrict them from accessing any other agencies data until they can become compliant. Nothing in the top 4 is particularly hard to achieve if adequate resources are put into it and procedures are amended to support their adoption not block them. That said this is a big agency merged and mish mash of systems all in need of a savage revision back to the basics of what they need to get the job done.
There's a battle on over two US spying laws: One allows snooping on citizens – one bans it
"Think of the children" and "terrorists" always a good reason to spy on your own citizens and once you have the data well it can only get abused for more and more "good reasons". Of course if you arent allowed to spy on your own citizens then you can always ask your "good friends" to do it for you too.
Scotiabank internet whizzkids screw up their HTTPS security certs
Get ready to register your drones in the US – or else
Drones will need to be registered as their use and popularity increase and I think much like motorised bicycles you pick a power output like 250Watts or total vehicle weight or similar to determine when a Drone starts to represent a vehicle that needs to be registered, insured and requires a licenced operator.
Laptop imports declared SECRET in Australia
Kmart Oz popped but credit cards are safe, really
You have to give them points fro prompt disclosure as Australia still lacks mandatory disclosure laws to back the privacy act. Still doubtful that all is known early in the breach detection and if more was know The PR spin merchants now to release the bad bits later say over a long weekend or when Russia bombs the Syrian free army so its back page news. Lets hope free id theft insurance was offered as there would be enough info to get another credit card lost here.
How the Arab Spring blew the lid off the commercial spyware
HP goes off VMware's EVO:RAIL, stops selling sole appliance
Patch-crazy Aust Govt fought off EVERY hacker since 2013
ONE in A HUNDRED reported bugs exploited, says Cisco
This is a bit misleading so how many breaches are caused by exploits of unpatched known vulnerabilities? It cuts both ways. Patching is the simplest and most effective way of mitigating being breached or compromised and it can be easily automated and managed for a majority of systems for lower cost than anti virus which isn't working anyway. Don't believe me than ask the Australian Signals Directorate. Their 'Top 4 Mitigation Strategies' which are:
1.Application Whitelisting;
2.Patch Applications;
3.Patch Operating System;
4.Minimise Administrative Privileges.
Possible Lizard Squad members claim hack of Oz travel insurer
Mandatory Breach Reporting Laws need enacting in Australia
Data Breach's like this where nothing is done to assist or help the victims really do go to show you can't trust business to protect its customers data and government need to step in with simple clear legislation requiring prompt disclosure to allow people to take protective action and or $M fines for multiple breach's or late or no disclosure. This will force organisations to essentially do the right thing for their own financial benefit as they clearly won't do it to protect their customers.
CloudFlare ditches private SSL keys for better security
SHOCK HORROR: Oz's biggest govt agencies to miss infosec deadline
Application control works and no it's not hard to decide what apps you want who to run on what. Many groups are very easy to whitelist like standard desktops domain controllers and web servers and database servers with a few exceptions and the exception shouldn't make the rule. Patching whitelisted apps though gets harder and patch management itself while easy is fraught with conflicting goals and timelines from app managers ops and sec-ops people. Still plenty of good sw to automate the Top 4 and make it achievable at a cost of course.