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"As technology becomes ubiquitous it also becomes invisible," wrote Wired magazine's founding executive editor Kevin Kelly in his 1998 book New Rules for the New Economy. The Westpac Group is now spending $2 billion on technology to create an…

Australia's about to get tougher new privacy laws. Businesses were given a year's notice, but with half that time already gone, many haven't even started thinking about it. They could be in for a rude shock — including fines of up to $1.7 million if…

"The threat of a cyber attack to the UK is so serious it is marked as a higher threat than a nuclear attack," said Rt Hon Keith Vaz MP, chair of the UK parliament's Home Affairs Select Committee, earlier this month. His committee's report, the result…

"A shadowy Cold War bunker is believed to be the nerve-centre for what is the biggest cyber-attack in the history of the internet," began The Sun's breathless story on the Spamhaus attack. "Powerful assaults from hackers slowed the internet around…

Twitter's transformation into a media and advertising company was a "tragic mistake", says Silicon Valley entrepreneur Dalton Caldwell. His start-up App.net aims to become the advert-free platform for real-time social networks that Twitter should…

Claims of an imminent 'Cybergeddon' are usually best consumed with a sizeable sack of salty cynicism. After all the information security industry is notorious for dodgy statistics and inflated claims. Scare stories sell services but they also lead to…

Technology Spectator The High Court's denial of an appeal in the Optus TV Now case is sensible in law, but illustrates how far copyright law itself lags behind society's expectations when using now-commonplace technologies. And it's only going to get…

I'm starting to think there's a complete disconnect in the security industry between what vendors are trying to sell and what's best for organisations to concentrate on. For me, the penny dropped during the recent Security 2012 event in Sydney. One…

The Anonymous-branded hack of AAPT proves the point: Internet service providers can't be trusted to keep telecommunications data safe for use in criminal investigations. But we knew this already, and random hacks don't help. AAPT chief executive…

Given all the talk about bring your own device (BYOD) policies, you might think that the presenters at a recent "BYOD-Mobility Press Lunch Forum" could name just one company that's documented real benefits from introducing one. But no. Surely this…

Commonwealth Bank's announcement yesterday that it'll launch a Kaching for Facebook app before the end of the year marks a phase shift in the relationship between banks and the entire rest of the internet – from a societal as well as a security…

Crikey Right. So Telstra hasn't just been tracking the websites visited by Next G mobile phone customers. It has been sending the data overseas without informed consent to a Canadian company that supplies censorship systems to Qatar, the United Arab…

REA Group chief executive Greg Ellis is clearly unimpressed with companies who complain that the booming internet has destroyed their business and expect the government to rescue their obsolete business models. "I must say, just as an Australian,…

Crikey Facebook is in talks with the federal government about plans to allow under-13s onto the site, reports The Australian. Facebook is "under fire" for "setting its sights" on your kids, cliches Fairfax. Cliches is so a verb. But wait. Haven't we…

Samsung's newly launched Galaxy S III smartphone is a warning shot fired across Apple's bows. Apple's next iPhone 5 must deliver wow factor technological breakthroughs, or they'll lose the coolest-smartphone stakes. The first law of infotech…

Australian businesses have passed the tipping point. Using social media and setting up bring your own device (BYOD) policies are no longer will-we won't-we discussions. The debate is over. Get on with it. "Over the last 12 months ...…

The phones must be running hot in attorney-general Nicola Roxon's and communication minister Stephen Conroy's offices this afternoon. Internet service provider iiNet just won its long-running legal battle against the massed forces of Hollywood, but…

4G is a dog’s breakfast, and Apple may end up eating it, served on an iPad.The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission took Apple to court today, claiming that describing its new iPad as “iPad with WiFi + 4G” is misleading. They’ve got a…

The threat of online crime is both over-hyped and under-estimated. RSA executive chairman Art Coviello illustrated exactly why a couple of days ago – though probably not in the way he intended. Coviello was briefing half a dozen IT journalists in…