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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The big news for the week is that Australia seems to be under a range of cyber attacks – probably it seems from China. It is probably worth a visit to www.cyber.gov.au for ideas and instructions as to what you may wish to do.
We are also seeing all sorts of security issues from various cyber attacks which are probably criminal in origin.
Otherwise a few bits of interesting news.
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https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/surge-in-cyber-attacks-amid-china-tensions-20200619-p554av
Surge in cyber attacks amid China tensions
Andrew Tillett, Angus Grigg and Tom Burton
Jun 19, 2020 – 6.45pm
Venture capital firms and defence contractors are among the hardest hit as growing tensions with China have contributed to a 330 per cent increase in cyber attacks on Australia since the start of the year.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison revealed a "sophisticated state-based actor" was behind a "malicious" wave of attacks targeting all levels of government, industry, critical industry, education, health and essential services providers.
Investigations had so far not found any evidence personal data had been stolen, Mr Morrison said, although sources believe cyber theft, including that of intellectual property, has been one of the main motivations.
The head of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute's International Cyber Policy Centre, Fergus Hanson, said given the recent strains with Beijing triggered by Australia's advocacy of a coronavirus inquiry, as well as past form, it was pretty clear China had been behind the attacks.
"This is just a carpet-bomb attack, not a surgical strike," he said.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/pm-warns-of-rise-in-cyber-attacks-ahead-of-new-strategy-549459
PM warns of rise in cyber attacks ahead of new strategy
By Justin Hendry on Jun 19, 2020 12:15PM
Blames recent activity on sophisticated state-based actor.
The government has set the scene for the release of Australia’s next cyber security strategy, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison warning of a surge in malicious cyber activity in recent months.
In a hastily organised press conference devoid of much substance on Friday, Morrison said the new strategy, containing “significant further investments”, will be released in the “coming months”.
The Department of Home Affairs has been consulting on the development of the new strategy since September to replace the 2016 strategy, which funnelled $230 million into the industry over four years.
But that strategy expired two months ago, prompting Shadow Assistant Minister for Cyber Security Tim Watts to call on the government to release the strategy in a parliamentary address earlier this week.
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https://itwire.com/open-sauce/question-for-pm-is-this-a-new-attack-or-is-it-old-stuff.html
Friday, 19 June 2020 11:25
Question for PM: Is this a new attack? Or is it old stuff?
The main question around the announcement of a cyber attack by the Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday morning is simple: is this a new attack? Or is it part of the port scanning and probing that goes on every single day?
Surprisingly, there was no media release from any minister worthy of note. All we had was Morrison speaking in a breathless tone as though he had run a mile or so.
If state-based actors were hammering on the cyber portals of both the public and private sectors, would it not have merited a more studied approach by our political masters?
The Australian Cyber Security Centre issued a detailed statement about the attacks – but that statement was updated on Thursday, well before Morrison gave his media briefing.
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'Malicious' cyber attacks target Australian firms, infrastructure
Andrew Tillett Political correspondent
Jun 19, 2020 – 10.35am
A foreign government has escalated "malicious" cyber attacks against Australian businesses and government agencies including critical infrastructure, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has revealed.
Mr Morrison said investigations so far had found there had been no large scale breaches of personal data.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has spoken about a major cyber attack that hit the government and private sector.
The cloud of suspicion has immediately fallen on China given recent bilateral tensions between Canberra and Beijing and past form after the PM said the attacks had the hallmarks of a sophisticated state-based actor.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/covidsafe-app-encounter-logging-bug-uncovered-on-ios-549270
COVIDSafe app encounter logging bug uncovered on iOS
By Justin Hendry on Jun 15, 2020 3:57PM
Devices unable to fetch temporary IDs when locked.
The government’s COVIDSafe contact tracing app has been found to contain a flaw that stops iPhones from retrieving temporary IDs when a device is locked, meaning Bluetooth encounters could be going unrecorded.
The major bug, which is limited to iOS devices and has affected the functionality of the app since it was first launched in late April, was disclosed by software developer Richard Nelson on Monday.
It goes to the very heart of COVIDSafe’s operation on iOS, with devices unable to fetch new temporary IDs from the national COVIDSafe data store every two hours when a device is locked.
“New TempIDs cannot be retrieved when a device is locked,” Nelson penned in an analysis of the JSON Web Token (JWT) and iOS Keychain access provided to the Digital Transformation Agency.
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https://www.governmentnews.com.au/vaccination-records-loaded-onto-my-health-record/
Vaccination records loaded onto My Health Record
15 June, 2020
The vaccination records of 10 million Australians have been added to My Health Record.
Immunisation information has been fast-tracked into My Health Record with the government saying vaccination status is among the top items people want to access online.
Information from the Australian Immunisation Register was incorporated into My Health Record in April and the records of ten million Australians have now been uploaded, the Digital Health Agency says.
It is possible remove the immunisation records from an individual’s My Health Record via privacy controls.
The AMA has welcomed the move, saying easily accessible vaccination information is important for individual wellbeing and as a public health measure.
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https://www.ausdoc.com.au/news/gps-are-one-biggest-uploaders-my-health-record
GPs are one of biggest uploaders to My Health Record
Figures show most GPs are now registered and are using the system, says Australian Digital Health Agency
16th June 2020
Almost 23 million Australians now have a My Health Record (MHR), with GPs and pharmacists among the most prolific contributors to the data, new figures show.
Latest information from the the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) shows GPs and pharmacists contributed more than 128 million medicine records, including six million since April alone.
In addition, the statistics show more than nine out of 10 GPs are registered with the MHR and three quarters use the records.
Immunisation data of 10 million Australians has now been uploaded to the MHR, after information from the Australian Immunisation Register was fast-tracked into the digital data base in April.
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https://7news.com.au/news/health/calls-to-set-up-national-allergy-register-c-1101364
Calls to set up national allergy register
Published: Monday, 15 June 2020 1:32 pmA national register should be set up to list allergy-related medical episodes or deaths, a federal parliamentary committee has recommended.
The committee also wants the government to establish a national allergies body to direct research and oversee how allergies are managed nationwide.
Liberal MP and committee chair Trent Zimmerman said with estimates that one in five Australians had allergies, the country was being dubbed the "allergy capital of the world".
"It's not a title any nation would aspire to," Mr Zimmerman told parliament on Monday.
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http://medicalrepublic.com.au/nps-medicinewise-ramps-up-virtual-visits/30307
17 June 2020
NPS MedicineWise ramps up virtual visits
Posted by Felicity Nelson
Before the COVID-19 crisis hit, NPS MedicineWise had the option for GPs to meet with educators online instead of face-to-face, but, over the past few months, the number of virtual visits has increased by around 1000.
This massive increase in virtual educational visits has given GPs and educators more flexibility around the location and time at which they meet. But it’s also been a bit of a strange transition.
Kelly Abbott, an NPS MedicineWise educational visitor based in Gippsland in Victoria, has been making virtual meetings with GPs from her farm.
“There have been interruptions from kookaburras and my alpacas and sheep here,” she says, speaking on a video link from her property with rolling green hills in the background. “But that’s all part of working from home and we’re making it work for us.”
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https://westernweekender.com.au/2020/06/government-may-extend-telehealth-beyond-september/
Government may extend Telehealth beyond September
June 17, 2020, 17:09
The Federal Government may continue subsidised Telehealth services that are due to end in September.
Local doctors and families are in support of an extension, wanting the consultation option to become permanent.
With the Medicare item numbers used to claim for Telehealth expiring on September 30, the Nepean GP Network (NGPN) is calling to still have the access that they were given during the COVID-19 pandemic.
NGPN Company Secretary Michael Edwards said it shouldn’t replace physical practices and consultations completely but can be beneficial for those needing it.
“Depending on the condition, utilising Telehealth is a cost and time saver for the elderly, people with chronic diseases, those with kids, disabilities or unique working hours,” Mr Edwards said.
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https://www.afr.com/technology/csiro-signs-ai-deal-with-microsoft-20200612-p5525t
CSIRO signs AI deal with Microsoft
Paul Smith Technology editor
Jun 16, 2020 – 12.00am
CSIRO will adopt the latest artificial intelligence and digital technologies from US giant Microsoft in ambitious projects targeting advances in areas including illegal fishing prevention, removing plastic from rivers and smarter farming.
Australia's top science and research agency has signed a partnership agreement that will see Microsoft engineers working with CSIRO and its technology capacity being used in multiple scenarios, including a plan to catalogue and extract value from decades' worth of scientific research.
Microsoft Australia managing director Steven Worrall and CSIRO chief executive Larry Marshall have signed an agreement for the two companies to work together on a number of environment-related projects.
CSIRO chief executive Larry Marshall told The Australian Financial Review he hoped to use greater technology capacity to better translate scientific discovery into solutions to real world problems, resulting in global societal benefits and future commercial opportunities.
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ADHA’s Service Registration Assistant helps keep patient information up to date
Dean Koh | 17 Jun 2020
Out of date contact details that healthcare providers have about healthcare services and other practitioners can mean that patients’ medical documents and information is not able to be sent from one healthcare provider to another.
An up to date electronic registry is more important than ever, as healthcare professionals cannot expect patients to keep their physical referral letter or test results when they move to a different healthcare provider. To that end, the Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) has built a Service Registration Assistant (SRA), which keeps healthcare service and practitioner information up to date with changes to contact details available immediately to authorized users.
WHY IT MATTERS
Healthcare organizations can update their details in the SRA once, and this will automatically send these new details to all organizations they have authorized to receive their information. This might include hospitals, pathology and radiology services, public service directories, secure messaging providers and more. The SRA avoids the need for an organization to update their information in multiple places and eliminates the need for hundreds of other directories around the country to manually keep their directories up to date.
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Prison looms for former court official who faked an intervention order
By Adam Cooper
June 19, 2020 — 2.55pm
A former judicial registrar is destined for jail for hacking into a court's computer system and creating a false intervention order against a friend's ex-partner.
County Court judge Fran Dalziel said on Friday she was minded to send Sara Borg to prison, despite calls by defence lawyers that the mother – whose second child was born just 12 weeks ago – should be spared a stint in jail.
"I'm intending to impose a period of imprisonment," said Judge Dalziel, who will sentence on July 16.
Borg was alone in a locked court room at Werribee Magistrates Court on October 25, 2018 when she used the log-in details of two colleagues to create an intervention order against a woman and used a magistrate's judicial number to issue the order.
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https://gcphn.org.au/minor-changes-to-hpos-navigation-pathway/
Content last updated 16/06/2020
Minor changes to HPOS navigation pathway
Services Australia have advised there have been some minor changes to the Health Professional Online Services (HPOS) navigation pathway.
The changes combine the two existing tiles for Healthcare Identifiers and My Health Record Services via a new tile in ‘My Programs’ called ‘Healthcare Identifiers and My Health Record’.
Examples of services under this tile include: managing organisation details, requesting/renewing NASH certificates and more.
Navigation as of 13 June:
- Log into PRODA
- Healthcare Professional Online Service (HPOS)
- Select ‘My Programs’
- Select ‘Healthcare Identifiers and My Health Record’
- Select relevant Healthcare Identifiers or My Health Record services.
If you have any questions, please call the Healthcare Identifiers Service helpline on 1300 361 457 (available Monday – Fri 8.30am – 5.00pm AEST & AWST).
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MEDIA RELEASE
16 June 2020
Patient outcome datathon to upskill health teams
Over
the course of four jam-packed days, seven teams of soon-to-be health data gurus
have learned how to use Microsoft Power BI and Azure tools to analyse real-world
data about patient responses to musculoskeletal therapies and develop
dashboards and machine-learning models that will become more and more useful
over time.
The Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) is running an online
datathon exploring the use of business intelligence and machine learning tools
in health datasets, from June 11-16 in partnership with Microsoft and
MyScoreIT and supported by BizData.
There was fierce competition for the 35 places on this educational challenge, which
received more than 150 applications. Finalists have come from different
professions, backgrounds and organisations all over Australia, and were
allocated to one of five positions within the seven teams: health practitioner,
health information manager, data practitioner, data scientist or student.
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MEDIA RELEASE
18 June 2020
New treatment plan may increase cardiac survival and reduce stroke risk
Treatment effectiveness, health care costs and quality of
life outcomes for the two to four per cent of Australians with the heart
condition Atrial Fibrillation (AF), could be markedly improved under a new
research project now underway in western Sydney.
Patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) will get better support and follow-up
after they leave hospital, reducing their risk of repeat hospitalisation,
stroke and congestive heart failure.
The project will use a successful engagement tool used in the USA to improve
patient engagement and adherence to immunisation and medications, adapting it
to provide personalised management and support to AF patients who have a wide
variety of healthcare needs. The project will also customise the tool to suit
the Australian health system.
The tool will use digital outreach methods to improve patients’ medical and
lifestyle management, monitor symptoms and identify any potential complications
of AF, so these can be addressed early.
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https://itwire.com/security/australia-lags-global-spend-on-security,-risk-management.html
Australia lags global spend on security, risk management
Spending on security and risk management technology and services in Australia and New Zealand is expected to decline this year, bucking the global trend in spending on security which is forecast to grow, according to a new analyst report.
According to the latest report from analyst firm Gartner, in Australia security spending is expected to decline, down 5.6% from A$4.3 billion in 2019 to just over $4 billion this year.
And in New Zealand, a 3.8% decline is forecast, dropping from NZ$635 million to $611 million in 2020.
The spending decline in Australia and New Zealand is in contrast to the global outlook, with worldwide spending on security and risk management technology and services forecast to continue to grow 2.4% in 2020 - down from the 8.7% growth Gartner projected in its December 2019 forecast - and “propped up largely by cloud and remote worker security investments”, according to Gartner.
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https://itwire.com/security/ransomware-expert-offers-word-of-caution-as-lion-s-misery-continues.html
Friday, 19 June 2020 10:29
Ransomware expert offers word of caution as Lion's misery continues
A Windows ransomware expert has offered a word of caution to companies that have been hit, pointing out that such groups often created backdoors when they staged an attack.
"Unless remediated, [these backdoors] provide them with access to the target network after the initial encryption event," Brett Callow, a threat analyst with New Zealand-headquartered security shop Emsisoft, told iTWire.
His warning came in the wake of what Nine Entertainment's Sydney Morning Herald newspaper claimed was a second attack on Lion, a major beverage manufacturer that operates across Australia and New Zealand, by a group using the REVil ransomware.
Callow, however, said what was being seen as a second attack could well be the continuation of the first attack, which Lion announced on 9 June.
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Hackers post evidence they have beer giant Lion's confidential files
By Ben Grubb
June 19, 2020 — 12.35pm
Hackers responsible for successive cyber attacks on Lion Australia, the beverage giant behind beer brands Little Creatures, XXXX, Tooheys and James Squire, are threatening to auction or publish confidential company data on the dark web unless they are paid a reported ransom of $1 million.
Lion, which is also behind dairy brands Dairy Farmers and Pura, told employees during an all-staff meeting on Thursday afternoon that it had been hit by a second cyber attack that had further disrupted its IT systems. Company CEO Stuart Irvine told employees that the company is now focusing on beefing up its network defences even as it continues to undo the damage to its systems from the first attack, according to a source who listened to the briefing.
The briefing came as hackers, claiming responsibility for the attacks, have provided proof that they have stolen confidential copies of the company's and its clients' files.
"You have 5 days to contact us and pay, otherwise all your financial, personal information your clients and other important confidential (sic) documents will be published or put up for auction," the hackers said in a note, accompanied by multiple screenshots of files.
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https://itwire.com/security/attackers-give-lion-deadline-for-paying-ransom-of-us$800,000.html
Wednesday, 17 June 2020 06:49
Attackers give Lion deadline for paying ransom of US$800,000
Australian drinks manufacturer Lion is facing a ransom demand of US$800,000 to decrypt its files from a group that used the REvil ransomware to attack the company's site.
Security sources have told iTWire that the group has given Lion time until 19 June to pay up, and threatened to double the ransom after that. The attackers have not yet made their demands public.
Lion, which also operates in New Zealand, is a subsidiary of the Japanese beverage giant Kirin. According to Wikipedia, it has about 7000 employees and its 2015 revenue was $5.6 billion.
The company first revealed that its systems had been attacked on 9 June and has been providing regular updates, the latest being on 15 June.
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Tuesday, 16 June 2020 16:36
MyFiziq and NuraLogix combine to create never before seen total health screen
VENDOR NEWS: MyFiziq Limited (ASX:MYQ), the company behind proprietary dimensioning technology that enables its users to check, track, and assess their dimension using only a smartphone privately and accurately, has this week signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Canadian based NuraLogix Corporation.
NuraLogix is a pioneer of Affective Artificial Intelligence (AI) – the combination of affective computing and artificial intelligence.
It has developed the world’s first cloud-based Affective AI Engine, DeepAffexTM, which utilises the company’s proprietary facial imaging technology, Transdermal Optical Imaging (TOITM).
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Australian scientists at Data61 use virtual reality to help stop COVID-19 virus reproduction
Australian data scientists are using virtual reality modelling to learn how to attack the operation and reproduction of coronavirus.
Dr Michael Kuiper at Data61, the digital research arm of Australia’s CSIRO, says three-dimensional simulation has made it possible to observe the mechanics of the virus’s spike protein, the protruding sections of the coronavirus cell that latches onto human cells and contaminates them.
“All the spiky bits that you see in all the images – that's the spike protein,” he told The Australian.
Dr Kuiper is a biomolecular modeller at Data61. He says he takes the structural data of proteins and molecules and simulates their operation on computers. Now he can also visualise them in 3D in VR.
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Thursday, 18 June 2020 11:16
ACCC raises competition concerns over Google, Fitbit proposed acquisition deal
Australia’s competition watchdog, the ACCC, has raised serious concerns over Google’s proposed acquisition of American digital health and fitness company Fitbit, and the potential for the deal to adversely affect market competition.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission - which is scrutining the deal and undertaking an investigation into the proposal - says its preliminary concerns are that Google’s access to consumer health data, with the proposed acquisition, may raise entry barriers, further entrench its dominant position and “adversely affect competition in several digital advertising and health markets”.
The ACCC prefaced its concerns about the proposed acquisition, commenting that Fitbit, a company that makes wearable devices, “has collected health information from consumers for more than 10 years, including users’ daily step counts, heart rate and sleep data”.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/accc-to-probe-googles-proposed-3bn-fitbit-acquisition-549403
ACCC to probe Google's proposed $3bn Fitbit acquisition
By Matt Johnston on Jun 18, 2020 11:41AM
Access to health data may stymie competition.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is investigating Google’s proposed acquisition of wearable fitness device manufacturer Fitbit over concerns it could adversely affect the digital advertising and health markets.
Fitbit announced the deal in November last year to be acquired by Google for US$2.1 billion (A$3.05 billion), which has since prompted investigations from the US Justice Department and warnings from the European Union consumer and privacy groups.
ACCC chair Rod Sims said on Thursday that Google’s purchase of Fitbit will allow it to build an even more comprehensive set of user data, “further cementing its position and raising barriers to entry to potential rivals”.
Fitbit’s fitness trackers have been collecting users’ health information for more than a decade now, including daily step counts, heart rate and sleep data.
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Researchers use artificial intelligence to offer an instant COVID-19 test
Researchers at Monash University and two Chinese institutes have developed a test for COVID-19 that they say can offer instant verification.
It involves conducting a lung CT scan and has to be done in-house. But they say the results can be delivered in less than a minute and the test will particularly suit people who fall ill and go straight to hospital.
The researchers say they have trained artificial intelligence to interpret a lung CT scan to find evidence of the virus’s impact. They say a key step in controlling the infection is to quickly identify positive cases and treat patients appropriately.
The work is a collaboration between Monash, Sun Yat-sen University and the First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University in China.
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https://www.hinz.org.nz/news/512822/Health-NZ-to-take-on-national-data-and-digital-roles.htm
Health NZ to take on national data and digital roles
Tuesday, 16 June 2020
A new Crown Entity called Health NZ should take on some national data and digital roles such as developing and implementing a digital plan and ensuring appropriate interoperability and cybersecurity management, a new report says.
The final report of the Health and Disability System Review makes a series of far-reaching recommendations, including creation of a new Crown Entity.
It recommends that ‘Health NZ’ should focus on aspects of digital that are required to manage and support improved delivery and performance of the system, while the Ministry of Health should continue to be responsible for national data collections and the Health Information Standards Organisation.
“The Ministry should be responsible for determining data policy, strategy and setting standards; Health NZ should be responsible for implementation and ongoing stewardship,” it explains.
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https://www.hinz.org.nz/news/513045/Momentum-builds-for-data-and-digital-investment.htm
Momentum builds for data and digital investment
Tuesday, 16 June 2020
The release of two major government reports detailing the investment needed in data and digital builds on momentum for change driven by the arrival of Covid-19, digital health leaders say.
Experts spoken to by eHealthNews.nz are optimistic that real investment in, and transformation of, the health system is possible and say the Covid-19 crisis has brought the often-unseen importance of health IT into the public limelight.
The final report of the Health and Disability System Review says that investment is needed to “enable a data-driven, digitally enabled ecosystem that supports modern models of care.”
It says consumers should be able to control and access their own health data and the system should routinely share data to support those working in or using the system.
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Friday, 19 June 2020 02:18
NBN broadband data demand continues to peak above pre-COVID-19 levels
Data demand on the National Broadband Network’s main wholesale access service continues to peak above pre-COVID-19 levels as more Australians continue to rely on the network for their work, entertainment and education needs, according to the latest report from NBN Co, the operators of the NBN.
Figures for the week from Monday, 8 June to Sunday, 14 June, released as part of Australian Broadband Data Demand report from NBN Co, show peak download throughput (the measure of data flowing through the NBN network) during the busy evening period increased by 20% to 13.2 terabits per second (Tbps) on the main wholesale service - compared to the last week of February, which NBN measures as its normal pre-COVID-19 baseline.
The report shows that peak download throughput during the week beginning Monday, 8 June also increased compared to the pre-COVID-19 baseline during daytime business hours, up 15% to 8.9Tbps, and during early evening hours, up 23% to 12.1Tbps, on the main wholesale access service.
NBN Co says the uptick in downstream data demand for the week beginning 8 June coincided with the release of a software update for a popular online multi-player game.
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Wednesday, 17 June 2020 12:39
TasmaNet chief sees NBN as critical player in Australia’s ‘return’ to economic growth
Tasmanian communications provider TasmaNet CEO Elizabeth Aris says Australia’s $51 billion investment in the National Broadband Network has never looked so good, but suggests that as the National Cabinet “plots the nation’s return to economic growth”, a wholehearted cross-sector embrace of the NBN’s full potential is essential.
“As Australia’s National Cabinet focuses on safely unlocking the nation’s economy and returning it to growth, it’s essential it has a complementary strategy to enable every enterprise, including the public sector, to adopt an NBN-first approach to help power economic growth in our regions,” Aris said.
Aris says TasmaNet has benefited substantially from a partnership with NBN, noting that the company sold its first NBN Enterprise Ethernet service in December 2018 within hours of the product being launched and has since deployed this new technology successfully across many sites - including public and private schools, along with business, enterprise and government customers of all sizes and industries, councils, healthcare and aged care, financial services, manufacturing, retail, professional services and transport.
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New billion-dollar telco takes on NBN
James Fernyhough Reporter
Jun 15, 2020 – 3.49pm
The team behind the merger of M2 and Vocus has engineered another major telecoms deal, bringing together Uniti Group and OptiComm to create the nation's sixth biggest ASX-listed telco and a major competitor to NBN.
Uniti, the slightly smaller of the two companies, will acquire OptiComm for about $532 million in a deal that was first reported by The Australian Financial Review's Street Talk column.
The deal will create a $1 billion company entirely controlled by Uniti's management team, headed up by chief executive Michael Simmons and executive director Vaughan Bowen, both formerly of M2.
Both companies specialise in rolling out fibre broadband connections to greenfield housing developments in Queensland, NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia. The deal will create the only major competitor to NBN, which is by far the dominant player in the greenfield fibre market.
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https://itwire.com/open-sauce/the-nbn-is-done-now-the-nbn-needs-to-be-redone.html
Author's Opinion
The views in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of iTWire.
Monday, 15 June 2020 07:43
The NBN is done. Now the NBN needs to be redone
Barring a major catastrophe, the Coalition Government will be able to announce within a fortnight or so that it has completed the rollout of the national broadband network met its target. One can only hope that, at the same time, there will be an announcement about how the network will be upgraded.
Any announcement will be akin to the declaration by George W. Bush in May 2003 that the invasion of Iraq he had launched two months earlier was a success; a "Mission Accomplished" banner flew above him that day.
But 17 years later, the Americans are still in Iraq, the country has not known a day of peace since the March 2003 invasion, and there is no end in sight to the political problems plaguing Baghdad.
One hopes that the NBN story will be less tragic. After a grandiose beginning, with a plan to provide 93% of the country with fibre to premises and the remainder with either fixed wireless or satellite connections, what has eventuated is a much more mixed and sorry mess.
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https://www.itnews.com.au/news/nbn-co-is-testing-an-online-appointment-rescheduling-tool-549244
NBN Co is testing an online appointment rescheduling tool
By Ry Crozier on Jun 15, 2020 6:56AM
Amid rise in number of technician appointments that need rescheduling.
NBN Co will test a new online booking tool that allows end users to reschedule inconveniently-timed technician appointments.
The tool is designed to automate - and therefore bypass - a bottleneck in the process that emerged due to COVID-19, namely the lack of contact centre agents, particularly on the RSP side, that can reschedule appointments.
“Due to the impact of COVID-19, there is reduced contact centre capacity across NBN Co and RSPs, and NBN Co has observed an increase in the number of appointments being rescheduled,” NBN Co said in documentation [pdf] released late Thursday last week.
“NBN Co is currently developing a new automated process through which contracted end users will be able to reschedule appointments via an online booking tool.
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Enjoy!
David.
