Category: Technology

Sushi Sushi, an Australian chain with 170 locations, is expecting to make “good headway” with a digital transformation that has enabled technology-driven improvements for store operations. Image credit: Sushi Sushi General manager of IT Anthony Sok told an Aussie Broadband investor day presentation that the company has grown from one location in Melbourne in 1998 to 170 locations today, with ambitions to reach 300 stores nationally by FY28. Sok – who joined about a year and a half ago – used his starting months at Sushi Sushi to gain the “trust and respect” of franchisees, which make up 70 ... Read more

The notorious internet messageboard 4chan has been hacked, according to posts circulating online, some of which said that the hacker involved had revealed identifying details of the site’s moderators to the public. The alleged hack first came to light when a defunct section of the site sprang back to life with the words “U GOT HACKED” emblazoned across the top, according to Wired magazine. Alon Gal, co-founder of Israeli cybercrime monitoring company Hudson Rock, said the claim of a hack “looks legit,” citing the publicly circulating screenshots purporting to show 4chan’s backend infrastructure. TechCrunch cited an unnamed 4chan moderator as ... Read more

ANZ Banking Group is continuing to build out a “one-stop-shop” to service the data needs of its risk function and about 2000 personnel. ANZ’s Artur Kaluza, fourth from left, at Google Cloud Next 2025. The data transformation program was first flagged at a Google Cloud Next conference in 2021. Additional details of the Google Cloud-based platform emerged in 2023, including that it would utilise BigQuery in its architecture, and that use cases for risk data included credit decisioning and risk comprehension. Speaking at Google Cloud Next 2025 in Las Vegas last week, head of data strategy and transformation within ... Read more

Woolworths Group has renewed an agreement with Google Cloud for a further five years. The retailer said that it would look “to further strengthen data, insights, and automation capabilities” implemented on Google Cloud through the fresh agreement. Group CIO and managing director of group enablement John Hunt said in a brief statement that Google Cloud has made “strategic contributions across all our business areas.” “Their deep collaboration, initially in setting up our Woolworths Data Platform, has been instrumental in accelerating data visualisation and analytics to transform our workflows and unlock the full potential of our data,” Hunt said. The retailer ... Read more

Google illegally dominates two markets for online advertising technology, a judge ruled, dealing another blow to the tech giant and paving the way for US antitrust prosecutors to seek a breakup of its ad products. US District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia, found Google liable for “willfully acquiring and maintaining monopoly power” in markets for publisher ad servers and the market for ad exchanges which sit between buyers and sellers. The decision clears the way for another hearing to determine what Google must do to restore competition in those markets, such as sell off parts of its business at ... Read more

The Queensland government has developed an AI-powered application on Azure to screen budding Olympic athletes using computer vision. Launched by the Queensland Academy of Sport, the custom-built YouFor2032 app features a series of virtual tests to assess prospective athletes’ strength, speed, power, endurance, balance and flexibility. Tests are assessed using video-based markerless motion capture and pose estimation to generate key points from a user’s self-recordings of exercise tasks. The AI maps joint movements and extracts patterns to analyse performance, measuring metrics such as jump height, fingertip reach, and the number of correct push-up repetitions. The data captured by the app ... Read more

A NSW Police firewall security administrator of 17 years, who was let go for installing WeChat on a work computer and allegedly “being dishonest” when confronted, has unsuccessfully sought reinstatement. The administrator, who had privileged access as part of his role, said he used WeChat “for troubleshooting and verifying intermittent internet access issues” and “to keep contactable with my parents”, according to a judgment from the NSW Industrial Relations Commission. NSW Police alleged that WeChat amounted to “unapproved software” and that installing it went against documented policy. The force further alleged that the administrator was “dishonest … when questioned about ... Read more

Queensland has officially retired its legacy digital identity system, QGov, after completing the transition to a “modern digital architecture”. The Queensland Digital Identity (QDI) will now serve as the single access point for logging into the state government’s online services. Operated by the Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR), QDI was initially developed “to support the launch” of the agency’s digital licence app in 2023, a TMR spokesperson told iTnews. “The QDI is a modern, robust, and innovative system which meets national standards and security protocols for digital identities,” the spokesperson added. “This change took place because the QGov ... Read more

Victoria University (VU) has hired former PEXA information security management head Tara Dharnikota to fill its long-vacant chief information security officer role. The university has been looking to fill the CISO spot for just over a year, during which it undertook an organisational change program that led to a review of its security needs. As a result, Dharnikota will now lead security for a combined facilities and IT services team known as the digital and campus services (DCS) department. She will report to Stuart Hildyard, chief digital officer and executive director of campus services. A VU spokesperson told iTnews that the digital and campus services division ... Read more

Aussie Broadband has outlined a six-pillar technology strategy aimed at making IT more trusted and able to underpin an ambitious growth plan over the next three years. CTO Brad Parker speaks at Aussie Broadband’s investor day presentation. Chief technology officer Brad Parker told an investor day that the six pillars are “intrinsic security, strategy and architecture, technology transformation, technology innovation, operational excellence and delivery excellence”. “To achieve our ambition, we continue the maturation of our technology delivery and execution functions, we continue the uplift of our platforms and services, and we continue the enhancing of the software developed across ... Read more