Category: Technology

Iluka Resources will implement a Honeywell-made distributed control system at its Eneabba rare earths refinery, which is scheduled for commissioning in 2027. The refinery will work with rare earths used in defence, electric vehicles, robotics, sustainable energy and agriculture applications. Honeywell said in a statement that the refinery would make use of its Experion process knowledge system (PKS), “universal operation controllers (UOC), and advanced remote-control systems.” This will give Iluka “a fully integrated automation system” for “plant-wide control of its facility”. The vendor added that the system “will help Iluka minimise incident risks while maximising production uptime” and comes with cyber security ... Read more

Melbourne Airport is building up its cyber detection and response capabilities in order to secure 30 million annual passenger journeys, which are enabled by multiple technology systems. Speaking on the iTnews Podcast, head of cyber security Cheuk Wong said he is heavily focused on having visibility across the airport’s technology ecosystem, from its internal IT to baggage handling systems and even its wi-fi networks.   “Visibility is very important because if I don’t know what’s happening in the environment, I can’t protect it,” he said. “The more visibility I have, the better that information is fed to our third party ... Read more

A 38-year-old man will appear in court today to face charges in connection with a data breach of “sensitive” NSW court filings a month ago. The man was arrested on Wednesday after a search warrant was executed on an address in Maroubra in Sydney’s south. Two laptops were also seized. He faces multiple charges, including “access/modify restricted data held in computer [and] use carriage service to menace/harass/offend”. NSW Police said that the charges relate to alleged “unauthorised access of the NSW Department of Community and Justice (DCJ) online registry website” between Wednesday January 29 and Thursday March 20. Some 8769 ... Read more

Autism Spectrum Australia (Aspect) has improved its hiring effectiveness by implementing a new talent acquisition system and transforming its recruitment processes. The not-for-profit operates 10 schools across Australia and also provides therapy services, plus an ‘Autism Friendly’ consulting service. Senior manager of workforce services and systems David Dunne told a recent SmartRecruiters event that the organisation considers the people it hires to be “superhuman”. “The teachers, the teacher’s aides, support workers, therapists: they’re the people that drive our organisation,” Dunne said. “Those people do an amazing job every day supporting … our students, our participants, [and] people on the autism ... Read more

Macquarie Bank is looking to AI to reduce the “cognitive load” on customers when it comes to managing their financial affairs, with “more than 30” AI-augmented products and services in the works for 2025. Luis Uguina. Chief digital officer Luis Uguina told the Google Cloud Next 25 conference that the bank had set itself up for the current AI era courtesy of a decision “to move all the digital workloads and our customer data into Google Cloud” in 2020. “In 2025, 97 percent of our workloads and all the customer data are running on public cloud and already in ... Read more

The ACT Public Service has kicked off a three-year modernisation of its core human resources and payroll technology is underway, two years after shelving a $77.6 million replacement program [pdf]. The territory will upgrade its existing Frontier Software technology stack, comprising Chris21 and HR21, and implement a new time and attendance rostering system. “The program will upgrade existing payroll and HR systems to the latest versions so that they continue to be stable, secure, and well governed; offer increased process automation (where possible), additional payroll process functionality and offer enhancements to the HR self-service portal for ACT public service staff,” an ACT ... Read more

Ransomware was the most pervasive cyber threat to the US’ critical infrastructure in 2024 as complaints regarding such attacks jumped nine percent over 2023, the FBI has revealed. Ransomware attacks on critical infrastructure accounted for almost half of all ransomware complaints received in 2024 by the agency’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), an FBI cyber official said ahead of the release of the agency’s Internet Crime Report. The annual report details scam and cyber-enabled fraud impacts across sectors and various demographic groups. Critical manufacturing, healthcare, government facilities, financial services and information technology were the top critical infrastructure sectors targeted, Cynthia ... Read more

SAP has reported an adjusted operating profit of 2.5 billion euros (A$4.4 billion) for the first quarter of the year, beating previous estimates. Analysts had expected 2.22 billion euros in quarterly operating profit adjusted for special items after a result of 1.53 billion euros a year earlier, according to a company-provided consensus. In January, the group forecast operating profit in 2025, on a constant currency basis, to be between 10.3 billion euros and 10.6 billion euros. SAP is Europe’s largest software maker, providing systems used by companies for finance, sales, supply chain and other functions. A boom in artificial intelligence ... Read more

CBA is using AI as part of its ‘big room planning’, a quarterly Agile activity that brings 16,000 people from across the bank together to coordinate software delivery activities and goals. CBA’s Helen Lau. The bank first introduced Atlassian Intelligence – AI designed to interact with a company’s Atlassian Cloud environment – to support users in the big room planning process in December last year. Engineering platform general manager Helen Lau told Atlassian’s Team ‘25 conference that the bank had laid the foundations for this by migrating its Jira and Confluence environments from on-premises versions to the cloud over ... Read more

Google contemplated deals with Android phone makers such as Samsung that would provide exclusivity for not only its search app, but also for its Gemini AI app and Chrome browser, according to a document shown on the second day of an antitrust trial. The US Department of Justice and a broad coalition of state attorneys general are seeking an order from a judge in Washington that would require Google to sell its Chrome browser and take other measures. They hope to end what the judge found was Google’s monopoly in online search and related advertising. In that ruling, US District ... Read more