Australian Cyber News Last Week – November 27th, 2023: Well, that was a busy week, especially on the forums regarding the Australian government’s release of the 2023-2030 Australian Cyber Security Strategy. It is interesting to note the number of polarised views.

Last week, I wrote up the TissuePath breach and followed down a rabbit hole chasing Core Desktop and the AlphV (Black Cat) gang ransomware attacks.

Making headlines as well, Optus CEO resigns, Changes to the SOCI act bringing Telcos into the fold, Federal whole-of-government zero trust target, plans to scale back so on the retention of Metadata, and the government delayed for at least two years banning ransomware payments.

This gem was buried in a report on the timeline of the Optus outage: “The Senate inquiry was also told that no one at Optus foresaw any risks that the routers could cause issues.” I think I’ll add that to my collection.

Have a better week, I’m looking forward to payweek after Black Friday sales.

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Incidents Documented Last Week

Incident: TissuPath data breach victim upset by delayed notification | ABC News (Australia)

By Steven Kirby on Nov 26, 2023 Australian Pathology Ransomware Attack, 14 November 2023 Australian pathology company Tissupath, reported a ransomware attack at a third-party IT …

Incident: Russian ransomware gang AlphV breaches Core Desktop, a South Melbourne IT services company | ABC News (Australia)

By Steven Kirby on Nov 26, 2023 Australian IT Services Ransomware Attack, 05 September 2023 Russian ransomware gang AlphV breaches Core Desktop, a South Melbourne IT services …

Incident: Russian ransomware gang AlphV targets pathology company, law firms in latest string of attacks | ABC News (Australia)

By Steven Kirby on Nov 26, 2023 Australian Ransomware Attack, 05 September 2023 Russian ransomware gang AlphV targets pathology company, law firms in latest string of …

Incident: Parks Victoria data breach | 7News

By Steven Kirby on Nov 26, Australian Privacy Breach, 05 July 2023 There’s been a privacy breach on the state government’s new campsite booking system. Personal details of other …

In Other News

Amendments to SOCI Act flagged in Australian Cyber Security Strategy – Knowledge – Clayton Utz

By Anonymous on Nov 26, 2023 On 22 November 2023, the Federal Government released the Australian Cyber Security Strategy and associated 2023-2030 Action Plan. The strategy and …

Govt strategy underestimates Australia’s cyber challenge

By Jason Murrell Contributor on Nov 26, 2023 Facing rapidly escalating cyber threats, Australia’s cybersecurity landscape demands a decisive and strong response. The Australian Government’s …

Queensland Health fixes ieMR system crash after staff unable to login for hours

By By Jack McKay on Nov 26, 2023 Queensland Health has fixed a technical crash with its electronic medical record system that had prevented health staff at dozens of hospitals and …

Australia sets whole-of-government zero trust target

By Ry Crozier on Nov 24, 2023 The federal government has set an ambitious target to have a “zero trust culture” embedded across the Australian public service by 2030. In its …

AFP, ACIC continue to use account takeover, network activity powers

By Ry Crozier on Nov 24, 2023 Two Australian law enforcement agencies handed warrant powers to access devices and alter or delete data in 2021 continued to utilise those powers in …

Gov shelves ransomware payments ban for at least two years

By Ry Crozier on Nov 23, 2023 The government has shelved plans to ban the payment of ransoms to cybercrime groups for at least two years but says a ban at some point is still …

Aussie couple’s ‘nightmare’ after losing $50,000 in HSBC bank scam

By Tamika Seeto on Nov 23, 2023 The Melbourne couple have lost part of their first home deposit and say they feel HSBC isn’t taking their complaint seriously. A Melbourne couple have …

Australia Unveils AU$587M Strategy to Defeat Cybercrime

By Anonymous on Nov 23, 2023 Australia Envisions Cybersecurity Leadership in the Pacific With New Strategy The Australian government says it will mandate ransomware reporting by …

Australia to deploy roving teams of cyber experts across Pacific as online threats grow

By By foreign affairs reporter Stephen Dziedzic on Nov 22, 2023 The Australian government has announced it will set up roving teams of cyber experts to help Pacific Island nations deal with the growing online …

Metadata retention scheme could be scaled back as part of plan to fight cybercrime

By Cam Wilson on Nov 22, 2023 The federal government’s latest cybersecurity strategy promises to ‘explore options to minimise and simplify’ data retention requirements.The post …

Forgiveness or punishment? The government’s proposed ‘safe harbour’ laws send mixed messages on cyber security

By Greg Austin on Nov 22, 2023 Should companies experiencing cyber attacks be forgiven if they cooperate with the government to stop such attacks? That’s the idea the federal …

NSW gov sets “new direction” for its $100m digital restart fund

By Ry Crozier on Nov 22, 2023 The NSW government is re-gearing its digital restart fund into more of an innovation support mechanism, narrowing the types of projects it backs to …

Queensland’s digital health record system hit by “log-in issues”

By Ry Crozier on Nov 22, 2023 Queensland hospitals that use the state’s integrated electronic medical record (ieMR) system have had to partially revert to paper-based processes …

ASD ran two “cyber threat hunts” on Australian gov networks

By Ry Crozier on Nov 22, 2023 The Australian Signals Directorate ran two “cyber threat hunts” on government networks in the 12 months to June 30. The figure is contained in the …

The Commonwealth Cyber Security Posture in 2023 | Cyber.gov.au

By Anonymous on Nov 22, 2023. Cyber security hardening The implementation of technical cyber security controls helps entities defend their ICT environments against cyber …

Home Affairs’ new Cyber Incident Review Board protects and investigates breached organisations

By Daniel Croft on Nov 22, 2023 The board will mimic the design of other international and domestic agencies, such as the US Cyber Safety Review Board, and will be responsible for …

Australian Cyber Security Strategy outlines how government plans to tackle cyber crime

By By political reporter Evelyn Manfield on Nov 22, 2023 A ransomware playbook for businesses and attracting migrants with cyber expertise are some of the ways Australia will look to bolster its …

Two weeks since the Optus outage, documents show backroom scrambling and urgent meetings occurred as the emergency played out

By By Tom Williams on Nov 22, 2023 In the two weeks since Optus suffered a devastating nationwide outage of its mobile and internet services, the company has shifted the blame to other …