American Airlines Extends Boeing 737 Flight Cancellations
In a move to “provide confidence”, American airlines is extending the cancellation of its Boeing 737 Max 8 flights from June
until mid-August. Following worldwide fatal crashes, 737 Max aircraft were grounded as Boeing develop new anti-stall system software
which came under scrutiny since the crashes. Senior officials at Boeing said they were “confident” that the upgrade would be
approved by US aviation regulators before mid August, despite having grounded 24 planes until then.
Telstra, TPG, Vocus and Optus Hit Back
Telcos such as Telstra, TPG, Optus & Vocus have said that their services are not a bottleneck to the NBN user experience, and that
any bottleneck sits with NBN Co itself. In a proposal to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the four telcos have
requested a data collection exercise on the industry which would require industry players to submit detailed data regularly on
connections they maintained to NBN points of Interconnect.In embarking on the data collection exercise, the ACCC is hoping to understand
if it needs to intervene in the wholesale aggregation or dark fibre markets.
Cyber attack diverts almost $500,000
After a suspected foreign cyber attack of the human resources management application, nearly $500,000 was diverted out of the city of
Tallahassee’s employee payroll. Officials are currently working to determine the hack’s origins but have said the employees have all been
paid. The city is working with its bank to recover the money and has already been successful in recouping 25% of the missing fund, they
have also engaged the services of its insurance company and law enforcement to pursue criminal charges.
McDonalds affected by Card Fraud
Dodgy payments cards have become an issue for fast food chain McDonalds, in a bid to reduce the fraud losses, McDonalds have resorted to
asking customers for identification. Privacy advocates and payment industry insiders are questioning how random requests for ID would
actually curtail fraud losses and how McDonalds intends to use the information it collects. McDonalds have not yet responded as to how
requesting ID would mitigate fraud.
Huawei: Why are Western Governments worried about China?
A growing number of companies, governments and academic institutions have called into question Huawei’s close links to the Chinese state
as espionage fears grow. Research grants at Oxford University have been suspended whilst the Germon Chancellor administration is looking at
ways to exclude Huawei from the country’s 5G networks. The company had denied that it’s technology is used for spying by Beijing but its
public statements have done little to quell fears.
SMS-borne Malware attacks 189 Australian Financial Institutions
Cisco’s Talos security business has detected what is being described as a “new Android-based campaign targeting Australian financial
institutions.” Detecting an advertisement that offers malware called “Gustuff” that claims it can attack Australian
institutions, Talos has said it found 189 sets of logos for Australian banks and cryptocurrency exchanges in the malware. The malware
goes to great lengths to stop anti-virus software running on Android devices and also tries to avoid being placed into sandboxes that
would make it harder it touch other apps and Android processes.
Labor’s NBN Policy calls for re-wiring of 750,000 homes
In a new NBN policy, the Australian Labor Party had pledged to re-wire 750,000 homes using fibre-to-the-node connections which will
“improve speeds and reliability” whilst also being at no cost to households. Not accompanied by costings, or other elements of
the plan, this “plan” is little more than a press release. However, the re-wiring is a retreat of sorts as it blames home
cabling for the NBN’s woes rather than asserting that Fibre to the Node is substandard. It is also likely to be a very expensive promise
with no source of funding being announced.
