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  Uncategorised

  If parents are the key to the future, what do they need?

  editor     |      June 23, 2008

  By Divonne Holmes à Court  

  We're not doing enough to equip parents with the best information to make parenting a little easier and a little less stressful.

  One of the most significant events of Kevin Rudd's term in office so far has been the recent 2020 Summit in Canberra. Over a busy two days, hundreds of people spent time together to discuss the best ideas and solutions for our country's future. Some ideas were smarter than others, but one of the most interesting themes to emerge was around prevention. We're all aware that acting now helps avoiding problems later – the 2020 summit discussed that investing in prevention today has a much better long term payoff than waiting for the problem to occur down the line and then trying to cure it.

  But looking ahead to the future is hard and planning for it can be even harder. I only started thinking about the future when I became a parent for the first time.
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  • Business
  • Defence and Security

  Collaboration is Key to Keeping Australians Safe Online

  Craig Scroggie     |      June 18, 2008

  As Web 2.0 technologies and the threat landscape continue to evolve, it’s now more important than ever that both private and public sectors join forces.
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  Uncategorised

  The path to prosperity through deregulation

  Hon. Lindsay Tanner     |      June 16, 2008

  A ‘one-in', ‘one-out' approach to new Federal legislation requires that a Minister seeking to impose new regulation must try and find offsetting reductions in regulatory burden.
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  Uncategorised

  Asian Studies and the Myth That One Size Fits All

  Warren Reed     |      June 16, 2008

  Let's face it, you ever only realise how fundamental your home grammar is when you study another language, especially one from a vastly different cultural or civilization bailiwick.
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  Uncategorised

  Enterprise-ing Web 2.0

  Greg Stone     |      June 15, 2008

  Interoperability is emerging as the key to making Web 2.0 transferable to the corporate environment.

  There have been countless discussions on how consumer expectations set by Web 2.0 are being transferred to the workplace. Based on working with Web 2.0, users increasingly expect to exert more control over their work experiences and to participate in them. They expect business applications to adjust to the way they work, rather than accept a suboptimal experience. This we know.

  Ultimately, Web 2.0 is not really about the technology. It's about social networks and users' control of their experience. The way to achieve this movement of power to the end user in the enterprise is through a composite solution that meshes software, services and the web and considers the business user as well as the developer.

  Composite applications are the business users' equivalent of Web 2.0 and mash-ups. They provide a mechanism for multiple technology vendors to participate in a solution that, in its simplest form, decouples information from line-of-business (LOB) applications like CRM or ERP and surfaces it in a more usable way.
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  Uncategorised

  A call for maturing our approach to IT security and risk

  Gavin Struthers     |      June 13, 2008

  

  For many businesses, justifying a budget for IT security remains a perennial challenge.

  As part of McAfee’s participation in E-security Awareness Week, I’ve spent the last three days talking directly to customers at an Executive Summit we hosted in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales, and gleaned some of the challenges organisations are currently facing.

  In the context of what challenges face CxO’s and security managers when it comes to better securing corporate networks and managing risk, there is a definite sense of this being a "work in progress". Their call was to make the proposition simpler while providing higher levels of protection and compliance.
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  Uncategorised

  Keeping our kids safer online

  editor     |      June 12, 2008

  

  Our kids might understand and recite the safety messages we tell them, but this rarely has much impact on their everyday behaviours.

  The cybersafety discussion is more important today than it has ever been. Not simply because of the scare stories that are emerging with ever-increasing frequency (only last Thursday [5 June] we witnessed large numbers of Australians, including at least one teacher and a police officer, identified in the worst type of child exploitation). But more so because, (i) children are changing their use of the Internet; and (ii) their parents are evidently not taking responsibility for the implications that arise from that use.
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  Uncategorised

  Innate virus protection by applying POLA and Object Capabilities

  quagga     |      June 11, 2008

  Contrary to the assumptions of most people- it is possible to create computer operating systems and programs that are immune to arbitrary attack by viruses and unauthorised access. In fact the foundational knowledge of how to build such a system has been known and applied for over thirty years. Unfortunately this knowledge has never been […]
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  • Business
  • Defence and Security

  A shift in thinking

  Julie Inman - Grant     |      June 11, 2008

  While we all have our own safety guidance, coming together to consolidate these messages and working across sectors is critical to making impact with consumers.
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  Uncategorised

  Why we’re teaching kids to teach their parents

  editor     |      June 10, 2008

  By Mark McPherson

  If little Jimmy comes home from school and asks you to scan the home computer for trojans, listen to what he's talking about – chances are he knows more than you do.

  This week we'll be working with kids from about half a dozen schools in Brisbane and taking them through a series of workshops at a purpose-built training facility at the University of Queensland.

  We're going to break them up into mixed groups where they'll work with their  teachers to solve real problems faced every day by home computer users.

  The challenge for us at AusCERT is that many of the attacks these days are carried out from computers in average homes, in average suburbs, often without the knowledge of the computer owners, so we're hoping to enlist average Australian kids in the struggle against cybercrime.
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  Uncategorised

  Telstra and the Tio, partners in crime

  Cyberbitz     |      June 8, 2008

  For a long time I thought I was the only one having trouble with Telstra, and that the TIO was an independant government body who would sort this out fair and quick. Not so, after many months of hearing and reading Telstra horror stories I have come to believe that Telstra is an unstoppable giant criminal rogue with the TIO […]
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  Uncategorised

  Does e-Security Matter?

  editor     |      June 6, 2008

  By Rob Forsyth

  The worldwide revenue from cybercrime is now more than $100 billion per year – this is the extent to which organised crime has embraced the internet.

  Why should you be interested in the message of e-security week?

  Let's imagine, for a moment, that you are already familiar with the many risks on the internet. Your employer is running good software at your email and web gateways. Your HR department regularly gives you sound security advice, such as not opening unexpected attachments, even from people you trust. (How do you know they really sent it?)

  You have an active firewall; you use strong passwords and protect them; you bank using two-factor authentication; and you don't surf to internet sites that aren't related to your business. You're protecting yourself, and you realise that at the same time you are protecting the next guy, too, through responsible internet citizenship.