Knee-jerk corporate responses to data leaks protect brands like Qantas — but consumers are getting screwed
It’s become the playbook for big Australian companies that have customer data stolen in a cyber-attack: call in the lawyers and get a court to block anyone from accessing it,Qantas ran it after suffering a major cybersecurity attack that accessed the frequent flyer details of 5 million customers,The airline joined the long list of companies in Australia, dating back to the HWL Ebsworth breach in 2023, to go to the New South Wals supreme court to obtain an injunction against “persons unknown” – banning the hackers (and anyone else) from accessing or using the data under threat of prosecution,Of course, it didn’t stop hackers leaking the customer data on the dark web a few months later,But it might have come as a surprise when the ID protection company Equifax this month began alerting Qantas customers that their data had been leaked – since access to the data was supposedly banned.
This highlights the major flaw in the injunction scheme.Qantas argues the injunction protects customers, but cybersecurity experts warn that in practice it has the opposite effect: scammers will ignore it, while organisations based in Australia and operating within the law will not be able to verify the data and report on it.Sign up: AU Breaking News emailTroy Hunt, an Australian who operates the HaveIBeenPwned website which notifies users when their information appeared in breaches, is frustrated that he has not been able to include the breach in his searchable database.“Clearly the injunction has not stopped even legally operating organisations from accessing the data and communicating with the customers,” he said.“[Qantas is] obviously trying to minimise damage, and they will inevitably get raked over the coals with class actions, because it happens to every big company that has a breach now … but there is just no measurable, practical benefit that anyone can assign to keeping this data out of the hands of people like [me], whilst it’s in the hands of people who are now abusing it.
”Hunt noted the irony that Qantas’s cybersecurity incident statement on its website links out to government resources for customers caught up in a breach,Those resources advise customers to visit Hunt’s website so they can better protect themselves by being aware of what information is out there,How Equifax approached the injunction is unclear,The company said it uses the cybersecurity company Norton to monitor the dark web,Norton’s parent company Gen Digital is based in the US and Czechia while Equifax is US-based.
Norton did not deny it had accessed the data when asked twice by Guardian Australia, saying in a statement it is “contractually obligated to notify customers” when their information is posted on the dark web.Sign up to Breaking News AustraliaGet the most important news as it breaksafter newsletter promotion“These alerts are part of our ongoing commitment to help victims of a data breach protect their personal information and respond quickly if their data is at risk,” the spokesperson said.“This service operates under strict business, privacy, and compliance standards to ensure accuracy and lawful handling of all data sources.”Qantas would not confirm if it was considering pursuing companies for potential contraventions of the injunction, but indicated it was monitoring third-parties and would consider them on a case-by-case basis.“We are aware of notifications being sent to some of our customers by a third-party providers.
These notifications include types of personal information that was not held in the system impacted in our July cyber incident,” the spokesperson said,According to screenshots from the Telegram group run by the hackers, posted this month by Hunt, the hackers are aware of the limitations of the injunction,“qantas why are you lying to your citizens?” the message states,“all your injunction does is prevent media/journalists,”“YOUR data WILL be released and it WILL BE accessed.
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Apple reports record iPhone sales as new lineup reignites worldwide demand
Apple reported its first quarterly earnings since the release of its new lineup of iPhones on Thursday, beating Wall Street analysts’ expectations. The company showed steady financial growth and a strong bottom line despite slow progress on artificial intelligence. The report comes just days after the company hit a $4tn market value for the first time.“Today, Apple is very proud to report a September quarter revenue record of $102.5 billion, including a September quarter revenue record for iPhone and an all-time revenue record for Services,” Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, said in a statement
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Amazon has made its first financial disclosures since the disastrous outage suffered by its cloud computing division that brought everything from smart beds to banks offline.In spite of the global outage, Amazon Web Services has continued to grow, and this quarter reported a 20% increase in revenue year over year. Wall Street estimated that AWS would bring in $32.42bn in net sales in the third quarter, with the company reporting actual revenue of $33bn.“AWS is growing at a pace we haven’t seen since 2022,” CEO Andy Jassy said in a statement accompanying the earnings report
OpenAI thought to be preparing for $1tn stock market float
OpenAI is reportedly gearing up for a stock market listing valuing the company at $1tn (£760bn) as soon as next year, in what would be one of the biggest ever initial public offerings.The developer behind the hit AI chatbot ChatGPT is considering whether to file for an IPO as soon as the second half of 2026, according to Reuters, which cited people familiar with the matter. The company is thought to be looking to raise at least $60bn.A stock market float would give OpenAI another route to raising cash, supporting ambitions by the chief executive, Sam Altman, to splash trillions of dollars on building datacentres and other forms of infrastructure needed for the rapid buildout of its chatbots.During a staff livestream on Tuesday, Altman was reported to have said: “I think it’s fair to say it [an IPO] is the most likely path for us, given the capital needs that we’ll have
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Google’s third-generation folding phone promises to be more durable than all others as the first with full water and dust resistance while also packing lots of advanced AI and an adaptable set of cameras.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.The Pixel 10 Pro Fold builds on last year’s excellent 9 Pro Fold by doing away with gears in the hinge along its spine allowing it to deal with dust, which has been the achilles heel of all foldable phones until now, gumming up the works in a way that just isn’t a problem for regular slab phones
Teenage boys using ‘personalised’ AI for therapy and romance, survey finds
The “hyper-personalised” nature of AI bots is drawing in teenage boys who now use them for therapy, companionship and relationships, according to research.A survey of boys in secondary schools by Male Allies UK found that just over a third said they were considering the idea of an AI friend, with growing concern about the rise of AI therapists and girlfriends.The research comes as character.ai, the popular artificial intelligence chatbot startup, announced a total ban on teens from engaging in open-ended conversations with its AI chatbots, which millions of people use for romantic, therapeutic and other conversations.Lee Chambers, the founder and chief executive of Male Allies UK, said: “We’ve got a situation where lots of parents still think that teenagers are just using AI to cheat on their homework
Microsoft reports strong earnings as Azure hit by major outage
Microsoft blew off concerns of overspending on AI on Wednesday, reporting elevated earnings even as it faced an outage of its cloud computing service, Azure, and its office software suite, 365. The strong earnings report comes a day after a deal with OpenAI pushed the value of the tech giant to more than $4tn.After its Xbox and investor relations pages went down, the company issued a statement that said: “We are working to address an issue affecting Azure Front Door that is impacting the availability of some services.”The outage did not dampen the software giant’s financial outlook. The company reported first-quarter earnings of $3
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