Marriott Data Breach
Marriott International has revealed that its Starwood reservation database has been compromised with as many as 500 million people affected
worldwide. After receiving an alert from an internal security tool, Marriott quickly engaged security experts to determine what had
occurred.
For some, information including mailing address, phone number, email address, passport number, Starwood Preferred Guest account
information, date of birth, gender, arrival and departure information, reservation date and communication preferences was accessed.
Investigations are on-going to determine the exact number of hotel guests impacted.
ACCC Warning
The ACCC has issued a warning urging businesses to urgently review payment and invoice verification methods as hackers target
businesses’ emails in a sophisticated scam.
Looking legitimate as they come from one of the business’s official email address, hackers have sent emails to customers claiming that
the business’s banking details have changed and that invoices should be paid to a new account causing payments to flow to the hacker.
Other variants of the scam whereby the hacker sends internal emails pretending to be the CEO requesting funds be transferred
to an off-shore account or salary or rental payments to be directed to a new account have also been detected.
Samsung to release 5G Smartphones in 2019
A plan to release 5G smartphones in the first half of 2019 in the United States has been announced by Verizon Communications and
Samsung Electonics Co Ltd giving them the opportunity to win customers eager to connect to 5G networks over Apple Inc who are planning to
release it’s 5G phones in 2020. 5G can offer data speeds up to 50 or 100 times faster than current 4G networks.
CBA and Comminsure
In working to ringfence its CommInsure business for divestment, CBA has uncovered potentially problematic data access controls and
internal group functions with access to sensitive medical information. It is currently unclear how many customers have been affected.
CBA are keeping authorities such as the OAIC, ASIC and APRA informed about the progress of its investigation. Over the past year CBA has
commenced the development and implementation of an extended privacy program with the aim to uplift privacy capability, controls and
monitoring.
Australian Business Websites Confiscated
As part of a recent crackdown by Australia’s domain space regulator au Domain Administration (auDA); several businesses have been
informed that the domain they have been using (some for decades) could not be renewed as usual.
Phrases and terms on the reserved list determined by the auDA relate to various pieces of government legislation, events or authorities
such as the Defence Force or the Grand Prix. For example, AFC would be reserved due to its relation to the ‘Australian Flying Corps’ which
could see Adelaide Football Club lose its domain under the crackdown.
