Cybersecurity

Australia wins international bid to bring prestigious online privacy preservation conference to Sydney

Australia has cemented itself as a global leader in privacy enhancing technologies after winning an international bid to bring the Privacy Enhancing Technology Symposium (PETS) to Sydney in 2021. A joint tender between CSIRO’s Data61 and The Optus Macquarie University Cyber Security Hub, both of which will be hosting the event, secured the conference, which comes...

Data Privacy Day: Here’s what you need to know

Hear from the experts on how organisations and individuals can protect themselves this Data Privacy Day, 28 January 2020 January 28th marks Data Privacy Day, “an international effort to create awareness about the importance of respecting privacy, safeguarding data and enabling trust”. There is currently a widespread shift in Australia towards increasing consumer rights around data...

Data privacy is a critical business need – here’s why

If data is the new oil, then consumer privacy is the refinery that transforms the product into the safe and useable end result. As we move further into the Digital Revolution, new and innovative solutions are needed to ensure we’re protecting one of our most valuable resources. In 2017, it was revealed that Cambridge...

Data Privacy – what is it, why is it important, how to ensure it, and what are its opportunities

Back in 2019, Flo Health’s ovulation tracker app shared private user information with Facebook, alerting the social media giant when a user was having her menstrual cycle or was intending to conceive. That data was then matched to an individual’s Facebook profile, with relevant ads being targeted towards that particular user. When contacted for comment by The Journal,...

Trust in a Trustless World: What does data mistrust look like now and how can we overcome it?

Digital deceit and data privacy scandals plagued 2018, with everyone trying to keep up with expeditiously evolving platforms and technologies. What does data mistrust look like now and how can we overcome it? Is regulation the answer and who should take responsibility for it? Can technology be both the problem and the solution? Four experts – Prof...

Decade of cybersecurity report could help reduce the future of cyber crime

Despite its reputation for aquamarine waters and harbours filled with super yachts, the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean has one of the most prolific cases of malicious cyber activity in the world. According to a new report released by researchers from CSIRO’s Data61 and Macquarie University in collaboration with Nokia Bell Labs and University...

Engineering identity from anonymity: Our work on risks of re-identification

As you’ve no doubt read, either through Algorithm or national news, data is everywhere. We create and consume data continuously. This data is specific to us, but when consolidated, this shared data can be of immense value. The value is not only for population level insights. An example – it has been identified that data...

This common action is putting you at risk of being deepfaked

As we move further into the Computer Age, fake news, digital deceit and widespread use of social media are having a profound impact on every element of society, from swaying elections and manipulating science-proven facts, to encouraging racial bias and exploiting women. Once a topic only discussed in computer research labs, deepfakes were catapulted into...

AFP using AI innovation to protect investigators from abhorrent material

‘The more data the better’ is a recurring request from organisations when it comes to mining data sets to solve complex problems. However, in unique cases, being exposed to too much data can be harmful to one’s mental health when working on the data-driven front line. The Australian Federal Police are tasked with identifying abhorrent...

Why we’re vaccinating algorithms against adversarial attacks

Is the image on the left that of a temple, or of a large bird native to Africa? According to a machine learning model that’s been duped by an adversarial attack, it’s an ostrich. As the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning across our society and economy is increasing, so too is the...