Op-ed

Australia's clean energy future has over the years picked interest and is among the 2023/24 Federal Budget winners with $4bn in new funding commitments that turbo-charge Australia’s green hydrogen sector and drive the electrification of Australian homes and small businesses. This shows that the Albanese Government recognises the crucial role of clean energy in our economic future and that clean energy and electrification drive down power prices and manage inflation. The budget commitment to $2bn in production incentives for renewable hydrogen will leverage many billions in private investment and will be a boon for Aussie jobs.

In 2022, the weekly number of cyberattacks in the financial industry averaged 1,131 attacks – which represents a 52% increase from 2021, according to Check Point Research figures. More than two-thirds of large institutions were affected by at least one cyberattack, not including successfully prevented attacks and unreported cases. The EU regulation "Digital operational resilience for the financial sector and amending regulations" (EU Regulation 2022/2254 – DORA for short) gives the cybersecurity industry a uniform legal standard to mitigate vulnerability to ICT disruptions and cyber threats along the entire value chain.

At the Black Hat Asia 2023 cyber security conference, to be held in Singapore from May 11th to 12th, everyone will be talking about the security, privacy, and intellectual property implications of artificial intelligence (AI) developed software. Some organisations will be considering writing policies, some companies have simply banned ChatGPT on their networks and others will be blissfully unaware of the security and licensing implications of it’s use.

The month of May is set to put a spotlight on the issue of data management and privacy, something that is of particular importance given the string of cyber breaches and information mishandling we have seen repeatedly documented in the media over the past six months. This Privacy Awareness Week (May 1-7) and Information Awareness Month, it’s time for businesses to look inward and consider how much useless and unnecessary information they're hoarding, not only for the safety of its clients, but for financial management as well.

I write to you from First AML, an anti-money laundering regulation compliance company in support of any first measure at all put in place to tighten Anti Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing (AML/CTF) regulations across the real estate, law, accounting and high-value goods industries (Gatekeeping Industries). This should also extend to trust and company service providers similar to what New Zealand have implemented.

Companies around the world have been working for over a decade to develop drone technologies that will work together with ground transportation to greatly improve last-mile delivery. Wing’s ultimate vision is to deliver people’s packages more efficiently and safely as part of an automated logistics system that routinely moves packages by the millions. 

Declining participation in workplace learning programs is costing the Australian economy more than A$35 billion a year because “we’re all too busy” trying to manage workloads and hit deadlines, according to one of Australia’s leading workplace analysts. Our accelerated work environment is driving lots of work in progress, multiple deadlines and overwhelming us. 

Federal Government and industry, specifically ASX-listed businesses, must urgently install a requirement that ensures all agencies and contractors engaged to provide services that involve accessing customer/consumer data, hold ISO27001 or SOC2 accreditation – (the international standards for information security) or prove to undertake equivalent practices.

Passwords have undergone an evolution in recent years, and with good reason. The tendency for password recycling and the unending possibilities for password theft, have rendered conventional passwords ineffective for the needs of today’s business environment. In its place, alternatives like one-time passwords (OTPs), two-factor authentication (2FA), multi-factor authentication (MFA), and biometric authentication methods have emerged.

Mental health services are supposed to support everyone, but the reality is that they don’t. Men communicate very differently to women and as a result, men find it difficult to speak to female counsellors about their issues and concerns. This is a harsh reality for men. In Australia nearly seventy percent of counsellors are female. Only thirty percent are men.