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ACCC Finds Banks Bitcoin Boycott Legit: Pollies Fume

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The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has found Australia’s banks have no case to answer over their withdrawal of banking services to bitcoin operators.

The findings by the ACCC have left the bitcoin operators and some politicians stunned, claiming the ACCC’s investigation was sub-standard.

Nationals Senator Matthew Canavan reportedly called the investigation flawed, following what he said was evidence that the banks had colluded before deciding to close the accounts of bitcoin companies.

However ACCC chairman Rod Sims wrote to Canavan, citing available material which suggested banks had individually decided to stop providing services as a way to manage their regulatory obligations and risks.

Sims said banks had the right to choose whom they dealt with, and there were many reasons why they could legitimately refuse to deal with an organisation. He said the ACCC had contacted numerous institutions and concluded that none had acted anti-competitively.

Bitcoin companies and Labor Senator Sam Dastyari, however, have slammed the ACCC’s findings, saying the regulator failed to properly investigate the issue, and had not even spoken to companies affected by the banks’ actions.

At least 17 emerging Australian bitcoin companies are said to have received letters telling them their bank accounts were being closed.

Motorola’s Droid Bionic Takes On Apple’s iPhone

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Motorola’s new Droid Bionic smartphone will begin hitting US shelves this week.

The phone, seen by some as a credible iPhone competitor, has a 1GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, 4.3-inch screen and 8MP camera able to capture 1080p video.

The current iPhone 4 has a similar processor, less RAM, a smaller screen and a lower resolution camera. 

The Droid Bionic runs Android 2.3.4 “Gingerbread”. It also has the capability to act as a Webtop – much like the Motorola Atrix – through a dock that puts the phone’s display on a laptop-sized screen.

Motorola has yet to confirm when the droid will be hitting Aussie shores.

Australia Lagging In IOT: Report

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Australia is lagging in the rapidly emerging area of the Internet of Things (IoT), according to the Communications Alliance.

The organisation earlier this year set up an Internet of Things (IoT) Think Tank and has now released details of its forthcoming report on IoT in Australia.

Co-author of the report, Frank Zeichner, told a Comms Alliance briefing: “When we look overseas it is evident that our peers and our customers are more advanced in their IoT strategy than we are. You can read it; you can see it. Here there is nothing.”

Comms Alliance’s final report, due in September or October, will recommend Australia set a goal that, by mid 2016, the nation has an active IoT community on par with international developments.

The draft report makes 10 recommendations, the primary one being that Australia develop a national IoT strategy that includes regulatory and policy settings to “drive IoT leadership, alignment, awareness and opportunity initially within sectors, and longer-term across sectors.”

Zeichner said the study had identified a lack of data sharing as the biggest impediment to development of an IoT industry in Australia. – Stuart Corner

VW Oz Fails To Clear Air

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Australian regulators and government authorities have joined in the worldwide investigation into the Volkswagen emissions scandal that uncovered illegal software designed to falsify test results.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the Department of Infrastructure and lawyers Maurice Blackburn have joined the international posse pursuing the German carmaker over the scandal.

Volkswagen has admitted to installing engine software in some diesel cars that reduce toxic emissions when being tested, cutting emission readings of toxic fumes by up to 40 times.

The software affects around 11 million cars worldwide, but Volkswagen’s Australian arm has been unable to confirm if cars here are affected and says it’s waiting on information from Germany.

Looking at a possible class action, Maurice Blackburn lawyers have urged Volkswagen diesel owners to contact them, but any legal case would depend on whether the cars meet Australian emission standards, which are less stringent than those in Europe and the US.

The revelations will have major ramifications across the whole of the car making industry, as technology has made massive inroads into automotive production.

The recent hack of a Jeep’s drive system, the storage of personal information in car entertainment systems, development of driverless cars and now the falsification of test results by a major manufacturer are certain to have regulators floundering for ways to safeguard consumers’ rights.

Chrissie Online Sales Pick Up

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Some 50 percent of Australian retailers expect online sales to make up 6 percent or more of their total sales this Christmas, according to a new report.

That compares with just 18pc of retailers in 2012 and 21pc in 2014, according to Deloitte’s Retailers’ Christmas Survey. The figures may be low compared to the US and UK, but Australian retailers are starting to invest in online services in response to consumer demand, the consulting group says.

“The key for retailers is to understand how customers are using digital devices, such as smartphones, tablets and laptops, to make decisions and shop,” said Deloitte Retail partner and national leader David White.

He added: “Australian consumers are highly connected when it comes to the use of digital, whether it is for researching a product, comparing prices and checking availability or purchasing with click and collect. 

“Australian retailers are potentially underestimating the appetite of consumers for digital engagement through the end-to-end shopping journey.”

Cybercrims Prepping New Round Of Payroll Heists, AFP Warns

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Cyber criminals are in a position to raid the payrolls of Australian companies employing hundreds of thousands of workers between them, an Australian Federal Police officer has warned.

AFP cybercrime operations team leader Scott Mellis told this week’s Australian Cyber Security Centre Conference in Canberra that weak security in many Australian organisations is leaving them open to payroll raids.

He said the HR payroll systems of several major Australian companies had been hacked over the past year, with employees’ pay diverted to “cash mule” bank accounts.

Attacks on share trading platforms, superannuation funds and tax return fraud have also become more frequent and lucrative, Mellis said.

The AFP operative said the standard methodology used by the cybercrims is to use stolen credentials to log in to the HR payroll system, check the date of the next pay run and check in again on that date and alter payee account details to those of its mules.

Another form of attack under increasing use is CEO impersonation, where criminals send e-mails to employees purporting to be senior executives in their company and requesting payments. Mellis said the AFP had detected CEO impersonation crimes in Australia involving sums of up to $900,000 in the last financial year.

Optus & Telstra Launch New Apps

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Optus has launched a “My Optus” app on the iTunes store and Android marketplace for iPhone, Samsung Galaxy S and S II post-paid customers. It will also come preloaded on prepaid handsets including Huawei’s X1, and Nokia’s E71 and E63.

Post-paid customers can use it to check usage, pay bills and turn on global roaming, while prepaid customers will be able to check their balance and usage, and turn on global roaming if they’re in the mood to spend a fortune.

Telstra is also reportedly developing a similar app that will let mobile customers check usage and pay bills, while Vodafone has already unveiled an app that lets post-paid customers view their usage.

The push for better account management tools for customers comes as part of the revised Telecommunications Consumer Protection (TCP) code lodged with the Australian Communications and Media Authority last month.


Ashley Hacker May Be Aussie

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The hacker behind the massive Ashley Madison hack – which has revealed the details of millions of married men seeking illicit sex outside marriage – may be an Australian, according to a US report.

US security researcher Brian Krebs claims to be onto the trail of the hacker, who he says self-identifies online as Thadeus Zu, and could possibly be Australian.

Krebs said he has found repeated references to AC/DC and the song Thunderstruck in the Twitter feed of Thadeus Zu, who appears to have intimate knowledge of the hack.

According to Krebs, the purported hacker makes constant references to his/her “Oz girl”, uses the greeting “cheers” – which Krebs seems to think is typically Ocker – and talks about people visiting him/her in Australia.

Meanwhile it’s been established that the millions of men who joined the Ashley Madison site seeking illicit sex in fact had almost zero chance of scoring.

Gizmodo journalist Annalee Newlitz analysed the database and found that only 1492 women on the database had ever checked their messages on the site, compared with more than 20 million men. Newlitz’s conclusion: “The overwhelming majority of men using Ashley Madison weren’t having affairs. They were paying for a fantasy.”

Aussies Welcome On H-P Cloud

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Australian entities are eligible to sign up for the test version of Hewlett-Packard’s new public cloud infrastructure-as-a-service offering, unveiled in the US this week, new enterprise media manager Stephanie Aye has confirmed. The service is said to be H-P’s effort at grabbing back customers it has been losing to Amazon.com (CDN, yesterday).
It will available globally, including in Australia, from May 10, H-P says, and so far about 50 percent of customers signing up are in the US, 50 percent outside.

Datacentres hosting the cloud service are all currently in the US, but H-P says expansion plans are slated for new facilities in the EMEA and Asia-Pacific/Japan regions.

HP Unveils Business Tablet

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Hewlett Packard says its new HP Elite x2 1012 tablet for mobile business users will go on sale in Australia in January.

The Elite x2 is described as a premium design, crafted from milled CNC aluminum with a focus on aesthetics.  

It is just 8.1mm thick, weighs less than 840g and has a built-in kickstand, adjustable through 150 degrees. The tablet runs under Windows 10.

The tablet is powered by an Intel Core M vPro processor. Pricing will start at A$1699