Tuesday 22 November 2016
Have an Optus, Vodaphone or Telstra mobile phone account? Your personal details may be on sale in Mumbai
Sunday 9 October 2016
Australian's don't expect Turnbull's version of the National Broadband Network to last the distance
Sunday 24 January 2016
Tuesday 24 February 2015
Metadata Retention: in which the Prime Minister of Australia says any old thing which pops into his head
Surveillance that stores raw digital data about the daily lives of all citizens. Data which federal government security agencies, police and every revenue raising state or federal government agency or statutory authority can access without a warrant.
This may be a somewhat simplistic yardstick used to measure the veracity of the federal government position, but it does indicate the likelihood that Tony Abbott was spouting arrant nonsense for the benefit of the camera.
Sunday 22 February 2015
DATA RETENTION. Abbott v Shorten. Fascism versus the rights of the citizen?
Fascism versus the rights of the citizen? Take the time to read up on the many concerns expressed about the Abbott Government's legislation, TELECOMMUNICATIONS (INTERCEPTION AND ACCESS) AMENDMENT (DATA RETENTION) BILL 2014, which will allow it to spy on Australian citizens regardless or whether or not they are suspected of committing a crime. Then you decide whether this is a huge step too far.
Australian Prime Minster Tony Abbott's attempt to place pressure on the Opposition and the Opposition's response:
Thursday 19 February 2015
Abbott's 'snoopers' charter continues to cause concern
The Abbott government’s proposed data retention bill, which will amend the Act, will make things worse, enabling retrospective surveillance of the private lives of ordinary Australians throughout the two year data retention period.
“The Abbott government is trying to justify this bill as a necessary tool for security agencies and the police in the fight against terrorism and serious crime. The legislation goes much further than is necessary for this purpose, however, allowing access to telecommunications data, even if the investigation only aims at non payment of a fine or a tax.
“The law now allows Australian Post, the tax office and a municipal council, among many others agencies, access to an individual’s telecommunications data. And there is no sanction if information is accessed unlawfully by authorised officers working in these agencies.”
Liberty said that in spite of statements to the contrary by the Federal Government, the proposed data retention bill will not necessarily limit the number of agencies that have access to telecommunications data and nothing in the bill will set a higher threshold for access to such data.
Liberty echoed the view of Alistair MacDonald, QC, chairman of the English Bar Council, that one of the aims of extremists, who are willing to commit barbaric crimes in support of purportedly religious or political ends, is that the hard-won liberties of the civil population should be curtailed and a wedge driven between those in society with different views about the degree to which personal freedom should be sacrificed for public safety.
Wednesday 23 October 2013
Tuesday 20 August 2013
Hartsuyker lets the cat out of the bag on higher mobile phone costs if the Coalition wins on 7 September 2013
Wednesday 26 September 2012
Dowell, George and Saffin call for Telstra to invest in digital infrastructure for Lismore
Saturday 1 September 2012
Telstra CEO gets a no nonsense letter from Saffin, George and Dowell over Lismore job losses
Tuesday 24 July 2012
The Federal Government wants to widen its ability to spy on Australian citizens
It is no co-incidence that last Thursday was first time a director-general of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) has spoken publicly since the agency was created 60 years ago - to assure the general public that his agency was an upright, touchy feely agency dedicated to protecting the country from all manner of foes and bogey men.
Unfortunately, these assurances ring hollow for many who have had even a modicum of contact with our home-grown spies.
Saturday 18 February 2012
The second half of 2012 is digital changeover time for NSW North Coast television reception
Friday 13 January 2012
Electronic Frontier Foundation soldiers on with Jewel v National Security Agency et al
San Francisco - The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals today blocked the government's attempt to bury the Electronic Frontier Foundation's (EFF's) lawsuit against the government's illegal mass surveillance program, returning Jewel v. NSA to the District Court for the next step.
The court found that Jewel had alleged sufficient specifics about the warrantless wiretapping program to proceed. Justices rejected the government's argument that the allegations about the well-known spying program and the evidence of the Folsom Street facility in San Francisco were too speculative.
"Since the dragnet spying program first came to light, we have been fighting for the chance to have a court determine whether it is legal," said EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn. "Today, the Ninth Circuit has given us that chance, and we look forward to proving the program is an unconstitutional and illegal violation of the rights of millions of ordinary Americans.".
Also today, the court upheld the dismissal of EFF's other case aimed at ending the illegal spying, Hepting v. AT&T, which was the first lawsuit against a telecom over its participation in the dragnet domestic wiretapping. The court found that the so-called "retroactive immunity" passed by Congress to stop telecommunications customers from suing the companies is constitutional, in part because the claims remained against the government in Jewel v. NSA………
Today's decision comes nearly exactly six years after the first revelations of the warrantless wiretapping program were published in the New York Times on December 16, 2005. EFF will now move forward with the Jewel litigation in the Northern District of California federal court. The government is expected to raise the state secrets privilege as its next line of defense but this argument has already been rejected in other similar cases.
Jewel v NSA et al full opinion 29 December 2011
Thursday 15 December 2011
Telstra fails to inform bundled account customers in writing of major privacy breach
This is the full text of the only correspondence from Telstra and BigPond sent on 13 December 2011 to a ‘bundled account’ customer whose name, address, phone number and account password/s may have been amongst the hundreds of thousands potentially publicly available on the Internet for an unspecified period.
As you're aware some of our online services were unavailable from late Friday 9th to late Saturday 10th December due to an earlier internal systems issue.
I want to sincerely apologise for any inconvenience you may have experienced this weekend because of the disruption.
Services are now back up again for the majority of our customers, and your BigPond services should be working as normal.
The decision to temporarily reduce access to these services was not taken lightly and I know that our actions resulted in a poor online experience for you and was a source of frustration.
So if you have any technical difficulties after logging into your BigPond email account please see our online help, visit us on CrowdSupport or just call us on 133 933. We’re here to help any time.
Once again, I apologise for the disruption to your service and thank you for your patience.
Best regards,
Peter Jamieson
Executive Director, Customer Service
Saturday 10 December 2011
Privacy Breach: Telstra was going to tell its customers, when?
Sensible Telstra customers will be changing their passwords promptly as a first measure after reading this in The Australian this morning:
Whirlpool forum regular exposes this privacy fail (emanating from what looks suspiciously like an internal company database whose creation and management may have been outsourced) at 1.08pm 9 December 2011:
Ugh, well, after a series of good experiences dealing with Telstra over the last eighteen months it feels like we're back in the bad old days. Tl;dr: Telstra is an enormous corporation with a seemingly endless number of autonomous departments, none of which knows what any of the others is doing. Telstra have leaked customer information onto the Web. I signed up for the $78 deal on 24th November—hadn't previously had a bundle on my account, or a Bigpond connection. Got my bill by email yesterday and, sure enough, the discount wasn't applied. First thing I did was to jump onto online chat. Had to wait over 10 minutes for a consultant (which was fine because I could basically just get on with my work). He didn't know anything about the $78 offer, but I gave him the link, it felt like he was about to apply the discount both to my current bill and to future bills, but then he told me that I would have to ring 1800 330 192. OK. I rang 1800 330 192 and after some humming and hawing the guy there gave me the $13 credit on my bill for this month ($10 plus the discount for the pro-rata initial period), but said that they don't in fact know anything about the $78 deal, and that I would have to ring the 'Bundles' department at 1800 008 851. Incidentally, if you do a Google search for that number, you get a very interesting result. Um, Telstra, that's customer information just sitting out on the open Web… That page also seems to suggest that he shouldn't have given me the number, but should have put me through……. |
Sunday 9 January 2011
To Voda, or not to Voda, that is the question
Natalie O'Brien writing in The Age on 9 January 2011 Vodafone mobile records leaked:
THE personal details of millions of Vodafone customers, including names, home addresses, driver's licence numbers and credit card details, have been available on the web in what is described as an ''unbelievable'' lapse in security by the mobile phone giant.
The Sunday Age is aware of criminal groups paying for the private details of some Vodafone customers to blackmail them.
Other people have apparently obtained logins to check their spouse's communications.
The personal details, accessible from any computer because they are kept on an internet site rather than Vodafone's internal system, include numbers dialled or texted, plus the time and location of calls or texts.
The full extent of the privacy breach is unknown, but The Sunday Age has learnt that possibly thousands of people have logins that can be passed around and used to gain access to the accounts of about 4 million Vodafone clients.
Michael Fraser, head of the Australian Communications Law Centre at the University of Technology Sydney, said it seemed to be a major breach of the company's privacy obligations and ''unbelievably slack security''.
Monday 3 January 2011
Another brickbat for Telstra Customer Service
Telstra continues to elicit negative perceptions……………….
An ongoing Telstra torment
I CAN'T begin to explain the torment I've experienced this past 12 months at the hands of Telstra.
I must say though my feeling of futility and stupidity was somewhat allayed when reading our glorious Bonnie's letter to you on December 20.
Bonnie is a business woman I admire and it brought me great relief to know that someone of her capability and knowledge of the world of communications could also struggle in her dealings with this once great telco.
I could detail in excess of 20 examples of monumental Telstra stuff ups involving my personal and company phones and internet connections over this year, however, the one that brought the most chuckles and pain was their recent disconnection of my business phones.
Without detailing the events leading up to this - which were quite bizarre and confusing to say the least -a day arrived, a Thursday, about four weeks ago when all my telephones - the business line, the EFTPOS line and all three company mobiles were dead.
When I tried to dial it told me I could only dial the billing number on my bill -which I did but it still didn't let me ring out.
So in frustration and fear I tried the Telstra business number - miraculously I got through. I explained I had called the billing number on my account as instructed -but had not been able to get through.
The only remark then was they were aware the wrong number is printed on those bills -no apology, no explanation.
The woman I spoke to told me that I hadn't paid my account which I explained I had in dribs and drabs over BPAY -and that Telstra had only just reconciled all the errors of the past 12 months.
The woman explained that I needed to pay another $473 if I wanted the phones reconnected.
I told her I simply didn't have that money on the day and asked her how she expected me to pay this amount given my customers couldn't call to order nor could they pay with EFTPOS and nor could they buy any pre-paid telephone or internet. She didn't care.
She said to call back when I paid and they would arrange to have my phones reconnected.
The irony was as she went to end the conversation she asked me which number was the best one to contact me on?
I said: "Are you serious? You've disconnected every single line I have."
I managed to get an email through to my son, who is currently serving in Afghanistan, he paid the account via BPAY and emailed me the payment details.
I actually have my own designated Telstra person - with an email address and direct number - as a result of the Telstra trauma
I've experienced this year. I couldn't call that person because the phones were disconnected - and as it turned out he was on an RDO anyway.
I emailed the payment information immediately to this chap, who returned to work on the Friday and he gave instructions that my phones be reconnected immediately.
Well immediately in Telstra terms was the following Tuesday morning.
My store is open 6am-6Pm every day of the week and my business number is used to book appointments for the acupuncturist and remedial masseuse who work from the clinic I've established at the rear of my store.
So almost six days with no phones, no EFTPOS and no sales of pre-paid internet or phone.
Over that weekend I needed to speak to my father.
I had a brainwave -I'll use the telephone box outside my store - hmmm ...it was out of order.
But the most painful part of this whole experience was that on the Sunday, December 5, my baby boy turned 26. He promised to call me from Tarin Kowt where he is currently serving as an Australian soldier.
For the first time in those 26 years I didn't get to speak to my baby boy on his birthday.
Thank you again Telstra -a most memorable year.
Oh, and some advice, stop spending buckets of money on sending out copious volumes of expensive marketing materials and direct that budget towards improving your customer service.
URSULA TUNKS
Managing Director, Premium ldeas and Marketing
[The Daily Examiner,letter to the editor,28 December 2010]