Martin Kovacs

Telstra Air, which was launched in June, is available nationally via Wi-Fi hotspots at selected parks, shopping areas, cafes, beaches, transport hubs and residential areas.

“As Australians hit the beach, head to the coast and relax in our parks, we’re giving eligible customers free Wi-Fi at thousands of Telstra Air hotspots across the nation,” Telstra head of Wi-Fi Neil Louis commented.

“That means they’ll be able to kick back and relax with their favourite content at selected beaches, parks and many of the nation’s top holiday destinations, like Byron Bay, Rosebud, Surfers Paradise, Noosa and Margaret River.

“We’re tipping customers will use the data equivalent of sending more than 50 million high-quality photos to post, browse, share and stream on our Wi-Fi network over summer.”

Telstra states that almost 300,000 members have joined the network since its launch, with 10 councils partnering with the telco to rollout additional public hotspots in civic spaces.

focus on helping organisations to know more about the threats they face,

according to Ovum’s Security 2016 Trends to Watch report.

IT

will utilise security intelligence along with analytical capabilities to

map the threat landscape and find and take action against new and

recurring threats.

“Industry coverage will include new

technologies which have been designed to identify and address the risky

actions that users are taking and the unauthorised, often cloud-based

facilities they are choosing to use,” Ovum states.

Ovum lists its

trends to watch next year as: improving the usefulness of security

analytics and threat intelligence is vital; keeping business data safe

calls for new and innovative technology; cybersecurity controls must

improve to deal with next-generation business systems; and, identity

management has to evolve to deal with the complete digital life cycle.

“In

2016, the security plaudits should go to software and service providers

who can identify threats earlier and provide organisations with the

quality of security intelligence they need to keep data safe,” Andrew

Kellett, Ovum principal analyst, software – IT solutions and report

author, commented.

“More realistically, it is likely to go to

vendors who can spot security breaches soon after they occur and deal

effectively with the aftermath of remediation.”

Kellett added

that “detection and remediation tools that can spot all types of malware

and reduce recovery timelines after a breach will continue to have an

important role”.

Operational demands, including the use of

technology that makes business information more readily available and

consequently more vulnerable to cyber-attacks, will drive the need for

better security, according to Ovum, with the increasing use of

cloud-based services, user mobility and multiple devices adding

complexity to security, particularly identity and access management

requirements.  

Next year, more use will be made of analytical

and intelligence-based security tools to identify threats and help

qualify the actions that need to be taken to keep businesses safe.

“The focus on keeping user and business data safe is a key issue,” Kellet commented.

“As

such, there needs to be far more interest in the control elements of

security that define what users are allowed to do: what on-premise and

cloud-based facilities and services they can and cannot use, what data

The IDC notes that IoT awareness is “gaining traction” in both the retail and manufacturing industries, with 56 per cent and 53 per cent of respondents, respectively, showing a high awareness.

In addition, 58 per cent of respondents consider IoT a strategic initiative, with 24 per cent viewing it as transformative. IoT was identified as strategic by 72 per cent of respondents in the health care industry, followed by transportation and manufacturing at 67 per cent and 66 per cent, respectively.

However, the IDC found that government, on the other hand, “lags behind in overall awareness and often needs clarification around the IoT basics”.

“IDC’s 2015 survey shows the regional differences in terms of awareness, adoption and plans for implementation,” Carrie MacGillivray, IDC vice president, IoT & mobile, commented.

“With nearly 2,500 survey respondents from 15 countries, including the United States, Brazil, China, India, and Germany, we are able to provide quantifiable evidence that the Internet of Things is a not just a concept, but a real global accelerator of the 3rd Platform.”

The IDC additionally found that while security remains a leading challenge, now upfront and ongoing costs have become the top challenges, and that, while considered IoT leaders, hardware vendors lost ground in 2015, as software vendors are overtaking equipment vendors.

However, just 49 per cent of online businesses are optimised to accept mobile payments, with 31 per cent of businesses stating they have no plans to optimise for mobile sales, while 26 per cent of online businesses have zero sales via mobile devices.

“Australia has one of the highest levels of mobile penetration globally, with 80 per cent of the Australian population owning a smartphone, so I was surprised to discover the low level of business readiness to accept sales effectively via mobile devices,” Libby Roy, PayPal Australia managing director, commented.

“The mobile payments landscape is fast evolving and the index reveals how habituated Australian consumers have become to mobile shopping, with more than a third of us making mobile payments at least once a week – a figure that jumps to 47 per cent for the under 35s.

“So, although online businesses may think they don’t need to optimise for mobile now, they will have to if they want to stay competitive in the near future.”

According to the index, 85 per cent of smartphone users aged 18-34 buy via mobile, compared to 35-49 year-olds at 73 per cent and over-50s at 52 per cent, with 47 per cent of younger Australians shopping on a mobile device at least once a week.

Australians shop on their mobile devices for the convenience (48 per cent), because it saves time (48 per cent) and because it’s easy (39 per cent).

Younger consumers are most annoyed when websites are not enabled for mobile (59 per cent), compared to 45 per cent for 35-49 year-olds and 28 per cent for over-50s.

Meanwhile, 46 per cent of respondents cited security as a barrier to mCommerce adoption.

Social commerce “has emerged as the new frontier for online commerce”, with 11 per cent of consumers reporting that they have made a purchase via a social platform in the past six months, with 7 per cent of businesses indicating they accept transactions via social media.

“It’s obvious that the early adopters in the business community are getting on board with social commerce as the business uptake at 7 per cent is not far behind consumer adoption at 11 per cent for this new way to buy and sell,” Roy commented.

“However, there’s a huge gap between the early adopters and the majority in the business community – with 34 per cent of Australian businesses having no social media presence at all, and 89 per cent of businesses stating they have no intention of accepting payments via social platforms within the next six months.”

Social media is a strong influencer, with 18 per cent of respondents buying something after seeing it on social media, rising to 24 per cent of respondents among the 18-34 age group, yet 28 per cent of businesses don’t believe their customers want to buy via social platforms.

Roughly half of respondents stated that security and safety is a concern with regard to purchasing through social platforms, with 59 per cent stating they don’t want their financial information linked to their social footprint.

NBN Co last year launched its fibre-to-the-node technology, part of its multi-technology mix, stating it expected a simpler installation process compared to other technologies such as FTTP would see it able to activate end users “much faster than on other broadband technologies”.

A separate internal progress report had also been obtained by Fairfax earlier in the week, with Fairfax reporting that, by the company’s own assessment, the project has fallen two-thirds short of its benchmark construction timetable, while connection costs to each house and business are also rising.

NBN Co subsequently hit back at the report, rejecting “claims that the company is at risk of not meeting its targets”.

According to the newly leaked document, NBN Co has successfully trialled a new type-3 system or MT-LFN (multi-technology local fibre network), Fairfax reported, with the trial suggesting potentially significant savings, with a fall in the construction cost per-premises from the current price of just over $1,200 to just above $600.

A media release issued by Shadow Minister for Communications Jason Clare describes it as “an extraordinarily damaging leak”.

“It shows that Malcolm Turnbull has been lying about how much it costs to connect to Labor’s superior fibre NBN,” the release states. “It proves the only reason that Malcolm Turnbull is not connecting millions more Australians to the real NBN is politics.”

Fairfax reported Minister for Communications Mitch Fifield as stating that it is “outrageous for Labor to suggest the NBN has been misrepresenting” the FTTP cost.

“Any claims this is a secret plan are nonsense,” Fairfax reported Fifield as stating.

The ACCC can declare a service if satisfied that it will promote the long-term interests of end users.

The regime allows the ACCC to declare a service, after which the provider of the service is subject to standard access obligations, requiring the provider to provide access to the service to access seekers.

The ACCC is required to review the declaration before its expiration in February next year.

While the NBN rollout continues, ADSL services currently comprise Australia’s dominant fixed-line broadband technology.

“A number of changes have occurred since the wholesale ADSL service was first declared in 2012, including the progressive rollout of the National Broadband Network,” ACCC commissioner Roger Featherston commented.

“This inquiry will assist the ACCC in determining whether continued declaration of the wholesale ADSL service is in the long-term interests of end users.”

A discussion paper issued today is seeking submissions on a range of issues, which are invited by July 29, with the ACCC stating that it expects to finalise its decision in early 2017 before expiration of the current declaration.

Of the attacks, 55 per cent targeted gaming companies, with 25 per cent targeting the software and technology industry.

The quarter saw a record for the number of DDoS attacks exceeding 100 Gbps, totalling 19, with the previous record of 17 set in the 2014 third quarter, while in the previous quarter there were only five mega attacks.

Web application attacks were up nearly 26 per cent on the previous quarter, and, as in past quarters, the retail sector remained the most popular attack target, being targeted in 43 per cent of the attacks.

For the first time including an analysis of bot activity in the report, looking at bot activity over 24 hours, Akamai tracked and analysed more than two trillion bot requests, with identified and known, so-called good bots, representing 40 per cent of the bot traffic, while 50 per cent of the bots were determined to be malicious, engaged in scraping campaigns and related activity.

“We have continued to witness significant growth in the number and frequency of DDoS and web application attacks launched against online assets, and Q1 2016 was no exception,” Stuart Scholly, Akamai senior vice president and general manager, security business unit, commented.

“Interestingly, nearly 60 per cent of the DDoS attacks we mitigated used at least two attack vectors at once, making defense more difficult.

As explained by the ACCC, these services “can be used by an NBN access seeker to supply a retail service, or alternatively to supply a wholesale service to another NBN access seeker or a retail service provider”.

With a little over a 48 per cent share of services, Telstra grew its share from a touch over 47 per cent in the previous quarter.

TPG had slightly over a 27 per cent share of services, followed by Singtel Optus and Vocus.

The ACCC report shows that total wholesale access services grew from 941,235 in the previous quarter.

The report additionally shows NBN Co had been contracted to supply 1,235 gigabits per second of aggregate network capacity (connectivity virtual circuits), up from 1,004 gigabits per second in the previous quarter.

“The ACCC’s report provides an update on NBN’s current access technologies, including the newer NBN access technologies of FTTB and FTTN,” ACCC chairman Rod Sims commented.

“Future reports will also include data on NBN’s HFC services. Over time, we expect these quarterly reports will provide information on trends related to the take-up of various NBN services and provide an overview of the wholesale market.”