Here are a few I have come across the last week or so. Note: Each link is followed by a title and a few paragraphs. For the full article click on the link above title of the article. Note also that full access to some links may require site registration or subscription payment.
General Comment
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A rather more busy week with more security issues emerging and continued adaption to living with COVID-19.
It is hard to grasp that we are really only 3 months into all this – it feels like it has been forever!
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My Health Record system hit by hack attempt
ADHA reveals external perimeter targeted.
The My Health Record system was the subject of an attempted hack over the past 11 months, the Australian Digital Health Agency has revealed.
National health chief information officer Ronan O’Connor told a parliamentary inquiry into cyber resilience the cyber incident was one of two “potential data breaches” to occur since July 2019.
Both were reported to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner as part of the notifiable data breaches scheme and neither resulted in any access to the system or data loss.
O’Connor said the first data breach notification related to a “potential compromise to external IT infrastructure supporting the wider My Health Record system”.
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Health records targeted in hack attack
11:32am May 19, 2020
The online health records of Australians were targeted by hackers this year but no personal information was stolen.
The Australian Digital Health Agency, which runs the MyHealth digital records system, has told politicians there were two potential data breaches in the current financial year.
In one case, it brought in the Australian Cyber Security Centre along with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner to investigate a hacking attempt.
"Somebody tried to hack our system, so the external perimeter of our system," the agency's national health chief information officer Ronan O'Connor told a parliamentary committee hearing on Tuesday.
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My Health Record targeted in hack attempt, inquiry heard
Wednesday May 20, 2020
The federal government’s online medical database was recently the target of an attempted hack from an unknown attacker, an inquiry into the cyber resilience of government entities has heard.
The Australian Digital Health Agency — the system operator for My Health Record — on Tuesday told the Joint Committee on Public Accounts and Audit that it has identified two potential data breaches this financial year.
The first was an attempted “hack” on the external perimeter of the My Health Record System, and the second on a state healthcare facility, according to ADHA national health CIO Ronan O’Connor.
“The first notification was reported to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner and that was related to a potential compromise to external information technology infrastructures supporting the wider My Health Record system,” he said.
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Is your health data safe as My Health Record hacking revealed
The government's My Health Record platform was the target of an attempted hack last year, Australia's national health information officer has revealed.
In a session of the Joint Committee on Public Accounts and Audit on Tuesday, Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) CIO Ronan O'Connor said that My Health Record had suffered two potential data breaches since July 2019, requiring it to notify the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).
"The first notification was reported to the OAIC and that was related to a potential compromise to external information technology infrastructures supporting the wider My Health Record system," Mr O'Connor said on Tuesday.
“Somebody tried to hack our system, so the external perimeter for our system. I want to assure the committee that there was no access into the My Health Record whatsoever. No information or personal sensitive information was accessed.”
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Australia's Digital Health Records System Was Attacked
Officials Says Attacker Did Not Access Health or Personal Information
Australia's digital healthcare records system was subject to an attack within the last year, but no access to records was gained, according to a government official who testified to Parliament this week on cyber resiliency.
The incident was reported to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, the regulator that deals with data breaches, says Ronan O'Connor, who is National Health CIO.
O'Connor oversees My Health Record, Australia's digital medical records project that's administered by the Australian Digital Health Agency. He spoke on Tuesday to the Parliament's Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit, which is holding hearings on the cyber resilience of government agencies.
"Somebody tried to hack our system - the external perimeter of our system," O'Connor said, according to a transcript. "I want to assure the committee that there was no access into the My Health Record in any way whatsoever. No health information or personal sensitive information was accessed."
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My Health Record cyber incident revealed
“Somebody tried to hack our system,” said Digital Health Agency CIO.
By Casey Tonkin on May 20 2020 04:47 PM
An anonymous bad actor tried hacking into My Health Record, a parliamentary committee heard this week.
Speaking at the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit public hearing into cyber resilience on Tuesday, the CIO of Australia’s Digital Health Agency (ADHA), Ronan O’Connor, said the agency discovered a “potential compromise” of My Health Record’s IT infrastructure this year.
“That meant somebody tried to hack our system—the external perimeter of our system,” O’Connor said after being asked repeatedly to clarify.
“I want to assure the committee that there was no access into the My Health Record in any way whatsoever. No health information or personal sensitive information was accessed.”
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Australian first as WA breast screening results uploaded to My Health Record
BreastScreen WA has become the first breast screening service in Australia to connect to My Health Record.
WA women, who have consented, will have their mammogram results uploaded to their My Health Record as soon as their test is assessed by two consultant radiologists. They can also choose to receive either an SMS or a letter.
Regular breast screenings save lives but waiting for the results of the procedure can be challenging. The fast-tracking of results will further support women and their health care providers as more care is delivered digitally.
Having the results kept in one convenient and secure place means they can be accessed at any time to help inform decisions about patient care.
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Three-month increase in My Health Record figures, but mostly for pathology tests
By NewsDesk
May 21, 2020
The Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA), system administrator for My Health Record, has heralded an increase in the use of online medical files in recent months.
“We have seen a significant increase in the use of My Health Records by consumers and health care providers, especially over the past three months,” interim CEO Bettina McMahon told the Joint Committee on Public Accounts and Audits on Tuesday.
“With regard to general practitioners, March saw the highest number of document views, as well as uploading to track usage.”
Providing further statistics, McMahon said ADHA witnessed about a three-fold increase in viewing of documents by general practitioners.
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Three-month boost in My Health Record numbers, but mostly for pathology tests
Current CEO Bettina McMahon said the month of March saw the highest amount of documents viewed to date.
The Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA), the system administrator for My Health Record, has touted an increase in use of the online medical file in the past few months.
"We've seen a significant increase in the use of My Health Record by both consumers and healthcare providers, particularly over the last three months," interim CEO Bettina McMahon told the Joint Committee on Public Accounts and Audit on Tuesday.
"In relation to general practitioners, the month of March has seen the highest amount of viewing of documents yet, as well as uploads to track use."
Providing further statistics, McMahon said the ADHA witnessed around a threefold increase in viewings of documents by general practitioners.
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Media Release: Important reminder not to put your health on hold
15 May 2020: The Australian Digital Health Agency (the Agency) has launched a digital health guide to help Australians find the latest health information and advice about navigating the healthcare system during a time when information overload is widespread.
Your practical guide to a healthier future through digital technology provides clear advice to help Australians and their families get healthcare safely as restrictions are eased, with online resources and an easy to use online symptom checker.
The Agency’s Chief Digital Officer, Steven Issa said, ‘A recently coined term, infodemic, has been used to describe the oversupply of information that confuses rather than clarifies. Digital health solutions are key to the national response to COVID-19 and the Agency has developed this online guide to give Australians clear advice on how to navigate the health system during this global infodemic’. ‘This guide aims to support Australians throughout their health journey and encourages Australians not to put their health on hold’.
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How NSW Health used tech to respond to COVID-19
From text messages and quarantine video conferencing for patients, to a state-wide campaign to allow staff to work from home.
By Asha Barbaschow | May 18, 2020 -- 03:29 GMT (13:29 AEST) | Topic: Coronavirus: Business and technology in a pandemic
With the largest population in Australia, New South Wales also has the biggest healthcare scope: 150,000 staff looking after 8 million geographically dispersed people. When COVID-19 concerns hit Australia, NSW Health CIO Dr Zoran Bolevich said the state department found itself at the very centre of the country's response.
Speaking with media virtually on a panel session run by Amazon Web Services (AWS), Bolevich said in such circumstances, the state's health system was designed to switch to a different mode of operation, mirroring an emergency response model.
Vastly different from business as usual, Bolevich said in the first few days of its pandemic response, NSW Health had to ensure "emergency response was IT-enabled".
That meant all the tools and information decision-makers needed was on hand. eHealth NSW was behind the transition and was stood up to provide guidance on IT-led healthcare to state-run health organisations.
Around 80 Health staff moved into the Rural Fire Service Operation Centre in Homebush. They also had to be fully connected to health infrastructure and have access to every system and all of the state health service's data.
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Children’s Health Queensland Hospital and Health Service
A virus has made Birdie’s friends sick! Birdie feels lonely and worried. What if everyone stays sick forever? But the doctors and nurses are there to help.
‘Birdie and the Virus’ is part of the Birdie’s Tree storybook series developed by Children’s Health Queensland through the Queensland Centre for Perinatal and Infant Mental Health.
Birdie and the Virus has been specifically designed to support the mental health and emotional wellbeing of babies and young children, their parents and families, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Monday, 18 May 2020 09:49
Nine days on, MyBudget says automated systems alive again
Nine days after it suffered a systems outage that took it offline, Adelaide-based money management company MyBudget says its automated systems are up again, and scheduled payments to clients are being made automatically.
The company claims that it was the victim of a malware attack but has not said anything more specific. Ransomware attacks have risen around the world during the coronavirus pandemic, but MyBudget has given no indication that it has fallen victim to this particular form of Windows malware.
The ABC claims that ransomware is behind MyBudget's woes but there is nothing on the company's website to indicate this.
MyBudget has been issuing numerous "updates" about the outage but there has been little of any substance in these messages. In every update, there has been a video message from its founder, Tammy Barton, whose dulcet tones add nothing to the dearth of information.
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Apple-Google contact tracing tech draws interest in 23 countries, some hedge bets
Initial version of system released.
Authorities in 23 countries across five continents have sought access to contact tracing technology from Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google, the companies announced on Wednesday as they released the initial version of their system.
But authorities would have to stop requiring phone numbers from users under the companies' rules, one of several restrictions that have left governments fighting the novel coronavirus frustrated that the world's top two smartphone software makers undercut the technology's usefulness by prioritizing user privacy.
Apple and Google said several US states and 22 countries have sought access to their technology, but it is unclear how many will end up publishing mobile apps that use it.
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Thursday, 21 May 2020 11:37
COVIDSafe data wll not come under metadata retention law
The Australian Government will pass legislation this month that will enable the deletion of data collected by the COVIDSafe app from the central collection data once the coronavirus pandemic is declared over in the country.
This is to ensure that the metadata retention act, which was passed in 2015 and requires all metadata to be retained for two years before deletion, does not apply to the COVIDSafe data.
A Health Department spokesperson told iTWire in response to queries that data on an individual's smartphone would be deleted every 21 days.
"The Australian Government’s COVIDSafe app captures Bluetooth handshake data between users of the app, when they are in close proximity to each other," the spokesperson said.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/services-australias-voice-biometrics-library-passes-12-million-548364
Services Australia's voice biometrics library passes 1.2 million
Customers sign-up in increasing numbers after user improvements.
More than 1.2 million people have now enrolled a voiceprint with Services Australia to access government services, new figures released by the agency reveal.
The agency responsible for Centrelink and Child Support said “increasing numbers” of users were enrolling after improvements were made to its voice biometric authentication service.
“As at 19 March 2020, 1.2 million customers have enrolled a voiceprint with Services Australia,” it said in answers to questions on notice from senate estimates.
“Services Australia made it easier for customers to register their voiceprint; this has resulted in customers registering voiceprints in increasing numbers.”
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Apple, Google release smartphone technology for pandemic apps
By Matt O'Brien
May 21, 2020 — 5.44am
Apple and Google have released long-awaited smartphone technology to automatically notify people if they might have been exposed to the coronavirus.
The companies said 22 countries are already planning to build voluntary phone apps using their software, though declined to specifiy which. The privacy-focused technology relies on Bluetooth to detect when someone who downloaded the app has spent time near another app user who later tests positive for the virus.
Many governments have already tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to roll out their own phone apps to fight the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. Australias's COVIDSafe app has encountered technical problems on iPhones owing to its inability to operate in the background; users must leave their phones unlocked and the app running at all time for it to function. Some other government apps have used GPS to track people's location, which Apple and Google are banning from their new tool because of privacy and accuracy concerns.
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21 May
The RACGP has advised Australians to avoid telehealth-only medical services and see their own GP.
The RACGP has spoken out against the rise in on-demand telehealth-only business since the expansion of the telehealth and telephone MBS items, voicing concerns about the lack of continuity of care, privacy issues and technical capabilities.
These businesses typically rely on quick patient turnover, which leaves no time for discussions of preventive health and longer-term health and wellbeing, the organisation said in a statement.
“Some of these services are potentially providing sub-standard and inappropriate care,” said RACGP president Dr Harry Nespolon. “They are taking advantage of understandable anxieties in the community about contracting COVID-19 and expanding their operations.”
Dr Nespolon stressed the importance of patients consulting with their usual GP during the pandemic, highlighting issues with having multiple medical records and patient notes that may not be synchronised, which could lead to delays in diagnosis, misdiagnosis, or unnecessary investigations.
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These businesses typically rely on quick patient turnover, which leaves no time for discussions of preventive health and longer-term health and wellbeing, the organisation said in a statement.
“Some of these services are potentially providing sub-standard and inappropriate care,” said RACGP president Dr Harry Nespolon. “They are taking advantage of understandable anxieties in the community about contracting COVID-19 and expanding their operations.”
Dr Nespolon stressed the importance of patients consulting with their usual GP during the pandemic, highlighting issues with having multiple medical records and patient notes that may not be synchronised, which could lead to delays in diagnosis, misdiagnosis, or unnecessary investigations.
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Clinical Informatics Position Statement released
Monday, 18 May 2020
eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth
Clinical informaticians are vital to ensuring the positive digital changes in the health system are sustained beyond the Covid-19 crisis.
New Zealand’s Clinical Informatics Leadership Network, which has more than 360 members nationwide, has published a Clinical Informatics Position Statement defining the role and value of clinical informaticians to the health sector.
It says clinical informaticians enable the evolution of health care by combining their clinical experience and understanding of health outcomes with their knowledge of information and technology.
They add value to the health sector by “bringing technical expertise and practical experience, engaging widely in the design and introduction of clinical systems, championing digital literacy, and providing clinical leadership.”
The Covid-19 pandemic has seen unprecedented change in the health system, with GPs and hospitals switching to provide virtual consultations for patients. Systems to enable clinical and administrative teams to communicate and work remotely have also been deployed at speed.
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Monday, 18 May 2020 11:38
South Australia Health adopts Microsoft Teams with COVID 19 response measures
South Australia Health has ramped up its clinical communications in response to the COVID-19 pandemic with the deployment of Microsoft Teams, with the first 13,000 personnel “embracing the solution” in just two weeks.
Alongside Microsoft training sessions to encourage successful end user adoption of Teams, Microsoft says it has deployed Teams to over 40,000 personnel in one week. with
the collaboration solution providing personnel with a “secure, modern communication and collaboration platform from anywhere, at any time, and on any device including iOS and Android”.
the collaboration solution providing personnel with a “secure, modern communication and collaboration platform from anywhere, at any time, and on any device including iOS and Android”.
SA Health declared a health emergency in response to COVID-19 in mid-March, and it also established a series of specialist clinics and testing centres and encouraged employees to work from home if at all possible.
Mirosoft says that in order to facilitate communications – particularly among clinical teams – while maintaining appropriate social distancing, SA Health has made Teams available to all personnel.
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SA Health deploys Microsoft Teams to 40k staff in a single week
Rapid deployment in response to COVID-19.
South Australia's Health department (SA Health) armed its more than 40,000 staff with Microsoft Teams in a single week to ensure communication, particularly between clinical teams, could continue during the coronavirus crisis.
The unified communication platform was rapidly deployed to staff when the agency first declared a health emergency in response to COVID-19 in mid-March.
Like most other workplaces, SA Health employees had been encouraged to work from home where possible to limit the spread of the virus, making day-to-day contact between teams difficult.
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New Zealand to roll out 'digital diary' app to help people track movements
As the country eases one of the world's most rigid lockdowns.
New Zealand will launch a contact-tracing app on Wednesday to help people track their movements as the country eases one of the world's most rigid lockdowns designed to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the app can be best described as a 'digital diary' helping people to record their personal movements, adding the data would not be shared to anyone else besides the user.
"It's just in case in the future if you find yourself with COVID-19, you've got an easy reference to tell where you've been over a period of time," Ardern said during a media briefing in Wellington.
"It's for you, it's on your device, and it's your data and your information."
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NSW is unable to use Covidsafe app’s data for contact tracing
Exclusive: No Australian state has reported using data for contact tracing coronavirus cases since it was released a month ago
Tue 19 May 2020 16.31 AEST Last modified on Tue 19 May 2020 16.38 AEST
Australia’s most populous state, and the state with the most coronavirus cases has not yet been able to use the Covidsafe app for contact tracing.
In nearly a month since it launched, more than 5.7 million Australians have downloaded and registered to use the Covidsafe contact-tracing app, which is designed to make it easier for state health officials to find close contacts in the event a user tests positive for coronavirus.
Last week, state health department contact tracers received training in how to access the data, but no states have yet reported using the data for contact tracing.
Guardian Australia understands NSW Health has tested the data but has had issues integrating it into the existing contact-tracing methods, and the Digital Transformation Agency was contacted by the department to fix technical problems.
(Note: Victoria now claims use in 1 case 20/5/2020)
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20 May 2020
New resource to help GPs navigate thousands of mobile health apps
Posted by Talia Meyerowitz-Katz
With over 300,000 mobile health apps currently available, it can be difficult for health providers to figure out which ones are suitable for their patients. The Digital Health Guide is a new subscription-based resource for health professionals who are looking to understand the thousands of health apps currently on the market.
According the Digital Health Guide website, many of the available apps lack evidence for their claims, and in some cases can even be dangerous. The guide aims to counteract this by assessing the apps’ capabilities, which health conditions they are suitable for, and what evidence exists to support their claims. This will allow health professionals to make more informed choices faced with a plethora of options.
Dr Elisabeth Wearne, a GP commenting on the guide, said, “This guide aims to collate the information and provide a bit of insight into the evidence that’s underpinning these apps”.
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Toll Group may have lost over 200GB of data in ransomware attack
Attackers start posting files.
Toll Group may have lost over 200GB of corporate data to the Nefilim attackers, who have now started to dump it onto the web after failing to secure a ransom from the company.
In a brief note to a leak site on Wednesday, the attackers released a compressed archive along with a text file listing documents stolen from Toll, which they described as “part one”.
They also appeared to suggest they were able to exploit the same vulnerability in Toll’s infrastructure as a previous set of attackers.
“Toll Group failed to secure their network even after the first attack. We have more than 200GB of archives of their private data,” the Nefilim attackers claimed.
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Wednesday, 20 May 2020 18:51
Nefilim ransomware gang leaks Toll documents on dark web
The attackers behind an ongoing ransomware attack on Australian logistics and transport provider Toll Holdings has released some documents which it claims to have exfiltrated from the company when it staged the attack.
The ransomware in question is named Nefilim and it attacks Windows systems.
News of the attack, the second this year, was announced by Toll on 5 May, with the company saying at the time that it had shut down some of its systems as a precaution.
The documents released on Wednesday on the dark web include statements about company financials in plain text and a zipped file. This indicates that the ransom demand by the group has not been met by Toll. The attackers claim to have more than 200GB of company data.
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Melbourne aged care technology group hayylo attracts investment from two backers – 50,000 users expected to double this year
Published on May 19, 2020
Greg Satur and Simon Heaysman’s startup has become the first aged care tech company to attract investment under a new aged care specific fund created by the Brisbane-based investment firm Sprint, which specialises in automation & AI, Medtech and FinTech investment.
hayylo has doubled in size to 50,000 users in the last 12 months, securing contracts with 10 operators including NovaCare, Goodwin Aged Care, integratedliving Australia, Churches of Christ Queensland and Lifecare for its customer service and experience platform.
Simon says with these numbers rapidly increasing as operators look to keep residents connected to families during the COVID-19 pandemic and create communication plans in the event of outbreaks, they expect these numbers to again double in the next six to 12 months.
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https://itwire.com/health/unisa-team-aims-to-build-wearbles-that-can-diagnose-health-conditions.html
Friday, 22 May 2020 09:41
UniSA team aims to build wearables that can diagnose health conditions
Researchers at the University of South Australia are set to begin working on a project to build wearable devices that can diagnose health conditions like pre-eclampsia, epilepsy, foetal arrhythmias and heart attacks.
In a statement, UniSA said it obtained a grant of $2.2 million from the National Health, Medical and Research Council for biomedical engineer Professor Benjamin Thierry to develop solid-state and wearable technologies for this purpose.
The devices are aimed at Australians living in rural and regional areas as they experience higher levels of disease and have less access to health services, compared to city dwellers.
“Wearable consumer products such as the Fitbit are already mainstream, yet the enormous transformative medical potential of wearable technologies is yet to be realised,” said Prof Thierry.
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Australian Government moves to torpedo 5G-coronavirus myth
A new outbreak of 5G-related fires has seen the Morrison Government move to torpedo claims of 5G links to coronavirus.
Communications minister Paul Fletcher says any suggestion that there is a link between 5G and coronavirus is utterly baseless. “As the Chief Medical Officer has said, 5G does not cause the coronavirus and it does not spread coronavirus,” he said.
His statement follows more suspicious cell tower fires. Auckland had two cell phone tower-related fires on the weekend and according to reports New Zealand has had 16 suspicious fires and attacks at cell phone installations in six weeks.
Another suspicious cell phone tower fire occurred in Adelaide on May 9. Recently there’s been a protest in Mullumbimby in northern NSW and concern about 5G was among the issues raised by Melbourne protesters wanting the Andrews Government to relax lockdown restrictions.
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Government lashes 'utterly baseless' 5G-coronavirus conspiracy theories
By Fergus Hunter
May 18, 2020 — 7.15pm
Communications Minister Paul Fletcher has condemned online misinformation linking 5G technology to the coronavirus and sounded the alarm about a growing vandalism risk to critical telecommunications infrastructure.
Unfounded conspiracy theories about the next-generation telecommunications networks have become increasingly popular online in recent years and Mr Fletcher has intervened as authorities around the world grow concerned about the real-world threats posed by anti-5G activists.
While misinformation about the health effects of the electromagnetic energy emitted by 5G technology preceded COVID-19, the pandemic has fuelled unscientific claims about the equipment causing the disease or placing people at greater risk of infection.
Mr Fletcher has responded to the growing community concerns with an emphatic declaration that the radio waves used by mobile and wireless technologies had been studied closely for decades and no harmful effects had been found.
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AusPost reported 300 cyber incidents this year, but nothing to cause major disruption
The government-owned postal service also touted itself as having a good cybersecurity posture.
Australia Post has seen around 300 cyber incidents so far this year, but it said none were enough to cause the government-owned entity to suffer the same fate as the likes of Toll.
Addressing the Joint Committee on Public Accounts and Audit on Tuesday, Australia Post chief information security officer Glenn Stuttard said from January 1 to March 30, the organisation had no incidents that were considered to be of "extremely high" impact.
"But we did respond to over 300 individual cyber incidents that we see in our systems and most of those come from things like SMS phishing campaigns," he said. "Text messages that bad actors might send to you try and get you to click on a link and give up your credentials and similarly through email phishing campaigns, so we're dealing with these types of things on a daily basis, and defending those."
He said it was quite a substantial number and that the postal service didn't have any "high" or "extreme" impacts over that period of time.
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NBN speeds took COVID hit
NBN speeds and performance took a hit as Australia moved to work and study from home amid the COVID-19 lockdowns, a monthly report from the ACCC found.
The Measuring Broadband Australia report, released Thursday, found average download speeds on NBN Co's 50 Mbps and 100 Mbps speed tiers deteriorated by 14 per cent and 23 per cent respectively between February and April, before the company moved to give retailers 40 per cent extra capacity for free.
The report also found results could have been higher if NBN Co and retailers addressed issues causing poor performance, such as problems with the connection at the customer's premise had been addressed.
“We encourage NBN Co and RSPs to build upon their initial gains so that many more FTTN customers can also receive the speeds of the plans they pay for,” ACCC chair Rod Sims said.
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Thursday, 21 May 2020 12:43
NBN speeds, performance decline, then recover after COVID 19 demands: ACCC
NBN speeds and performance declined as Australians followed social distancing instructions to stay home due to COVID-19, but picked up following measures by NBN Co and streaming providers, according to the competition regulator, the ACCC.
The ACCC has just released its first new monthly Measuring Broadband Australia report showing a recovery in network performance, principally due to NBN Co’s move to offer retail service providers (RSPs) 40% extra network capacity for free.
The report shows average download speeds on NBN Co’s 50 Mbps and 100 Mbps speed tiers had dropped by 14% and 23%, respectively, before the move.
“Broadband services have experienced unprecedented demand during the COVID-19 pandemic, as many people and small businesses have been working from home and making increased use of telehealth, online learning and other services,” ACCC Chair Rod Sims said.
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NBN needs fibre upgrade: Vodafone boss
Australia's broadband infrastructure will require a mass upgrade to fibre sooner rather than later, according to Vodafone chief executive Iñaki Berroeta who said the works will require a collaborative effort from NBN Co and the telecommunications industry.
Mr Berroeta, speaking at a trans-Tasman Business Circle virtual event on Thursday, said that most Australian homes are connected with ageing copper-based NBN technology which will inevitably need to be upgraded.
"That's one of the challenges NBN is facing, to upgrade all of this infrastructure in the future. And that will need to happen sooner rather than later," Mr Berroeta said. "All of this will have to go to a modern fibre infrastructure.
"This pandemic has brought a lot of people working and studying from home. In a household you might have two people connecting to their workplaces, and two students connecting to their schools, and you see the limitations of the infrastructure Australia has.
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ACCC questions consumer need for higher-priced 100Mbps NBN services
Because 50Mbps is enough for streaming.
Australia’s competition watchdog took the unusual step of questioning whether consumers really needed to pay a premium for 100Mbps NBN services, given the performance characteristics of cheaper 50Mbps plans.
The comments were made in conjunction with the release of new broadband monitoring numbers by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), which “show, for the first time, how different NBN plans perform in streaming popular video content from Netflix and YouTube.”
The report [pdf] found that for most retail service providers (RSPs), “nearly all NBN50 services would be able to stream from Netflix in high definition, even if two people were watching different programs at the same time.”
“This remained true even during busy hours,” it said, as well as for streams from YouTube.
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Wednesday, 20 May 2020 11:44
Complaints about faulty phones, Internet services dominate Ombudsman report
Residential consumers and small businesses made 32,441 complaints about phone and internet services to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) over three months between January to March this year - with a massive 70% of the complaints coming from users not having a working phone or Internet service.
The TIO says that while the comparison of the total number of complaints for the three months, against the same period in 2019, shows a decline of almost 14%, complaints about phone and internet services increased 13% against the second quarter of 2020.
This data is highlighted in the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman’s third quarter 2020 complaints report published on Wednesday.
The TIO complaints report also drew comment from telecoms lobby group Communications Alliance and the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) which said the report “suggests that telcos need a customer service shake-up as consumers continue to deal with no or delayed action”.
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Broadband demand still soaring
ASX-listed broadband provider Superloop has joined a throng of tech companies to see an upside to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the company reporting strong fibre connectivity and cyber security sales as digital demand continues to climb.
Superloop listed in 2015 as a wholesale 'dark fibre' provider but has since expanded to providing consumer NBN plans, and the company said in an update on Monday that it demand for its internet services had ramped up significantly in the last month.
It said traffic over its global network soared by 30 per cent in a matter of weeks.
"This increase in customer demand has almost entirely been delivered on our existing domestic and international assets," the company said.
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Enjoy!
David.
