Category: Technology

Chinese police in the northeastern city of Harbin have accused the United States National Security Agency (NSA) of launching “advanced” cyberattacks during the Asian Winter Games in February, targeting essential industries. Police added three alleged NSA agents to a wanted list and also accused … Hi! You’ve reached one of our premium articles. This is available exclusively to subscribers. It’s free to register, and only takes a few minutes. Once you sign up you’ll have unlimited access to the full catalogue of Australia’s best business IT content, as well as a daily news bulletin delivered straight to your inbox. Register ... Read more

A New York attorney has accused a British private intelligence firm of paying mercenary hackers who he says tipped a court battle in his opponents’ favour. In a legal motion filed in Manhattan federal court, Daniel Feldman accused the London-based investigations firm Vantage Intelligence of … Hi! You’ve reached one of our premium articles. This is available exclusively to subscribers. It’s free to register, and only takes a few minutes. Once you sign up you’ll have unlimited access to the full catalogue of Australia’s best business IT content, as well as a daily news bulletin delivered straight to your inbox. Register ... Read more

The Department of Health and Aged Care has renewed its cloud arrangement with Amazon Web Services for another three years. Health has used AWS for cloud services since 2022, having agreed a $16.8 million deal with the hyperscaler, which is due to expire on June 30. Ahead of the expiration, the department has signed a $22.9 million agreement with AWS that begins May 1 and expires in April 2028. iTnews understands that the contract covers compute, storage, analytics, generative AI and other proof of concept services that are hosted and provided by AWS. The agreement was sourced via the Digital ... Read more

A multi-million-dollar program to modernise NSW’s licensing digital infrastructure is in turmoil amid significant delays and escalating costs. The Licence NSW program was created to migrate over 100 licensing services into an integrated whole-of-government system powered by Calytera’s Amanda solution by this year. However, documents seen by iTnews reveal that, despite receiving funding of almost $240 million, only a fraction of licensing systems have been successfully migrated and gone live in the new platform.  The Department of Customer Service (DCS), which is responsible for overseeing the program, is now preparing to request a further $130 million in order to complete ... Read more

Nvidia said it would take US$5.5 billion ($8.6 billion) in charges after the US government limited exports of its H20 artificial intelligence chip to China, a key market for one of its most popular chips. Nvidia’s AI chips have been a key focus of US export controls as US officials have moved to keep the most advanced chips from being sold to China as the US tries to keep ahead in the AI race. After those controls were implemented, Nvidia began designing chips that would come as close as possible to US limits. A US Commerce Department spokesperson said that it ... Read more

US officials will extend support for 11 months for a database of cyber weaknesses that plays a critical role in fighting bugs and hacks, just as the funding was due to run out. The expected cut-off of payments for the non-profit MITRE’s Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) database had spread alarm across the cyber security community.  The US-backed database acts as a catalogue for cyber weaknesses and allows IT administrators to quickly flag and triage the different bugs and hacks discovered daily. The last-minute change of plan after the importance of the service was highlighted publicly is another instance of ... Read more

Asian crime syndicates behind the multibillion-dollar cyberscam industry are expanding globally, including to South America and Africa, as raids in Southeast Asia fail to contain their activities, the United Nations said in a report. Criminal networks that emerged in Southeast Asia in recent years, opening sprawling compounds housing tens of thousands of workers, many trafficked and forced to scam victims around the world, have evolved into a sophisticated global industry, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said. Even as Southeast Asian governments have intensified a crackdown, syndicates have moved within and beyond the region, the agency said, ... Read more

The Australian Taxation Office has bundled VMware and CA Technologies’ licenses into a single $109 million renewal. The move coincides with the expiry of the ATO’s $69 million agreement for CA’s suite of mainframe software signed in March 2021. While its current contract with VMware, valued at $28.6 million, isn’t set to expire until January 2026, the ATO appears to have proactively wrapped it into this renewal alongside CA for another three years. Both CA Technologies and VMware are owned by Broadcom: the chipmaker bought CA Technologies in 2018 and completed its deal to buy the virtualisation software provider in ... Read more

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he expects to receive pressure from social media giants to ease Australia’s impending ban on children using their platforms, with opposition Liberal leader Peter Dutton keen to agree with him in an election debate. President Donald Trump’s US administration has already raised the issue on behalf of the firms, mostly US-based, in relation to trade tariff negotiations. In the televised event ahead of a national election on May 3, Albanese and Dutton both pledged strong support for laws that force social media companies to negotiate to pay for local news hosted on their platforms, and ... Read more

Google is proposing to land two new subsea cables outside of designated protection zones in Sydney, owing to “congestion” within those zones. The company, through its “registered licence carrier company Perch Infrastructure”, has applied to the NSW government for permission to land the cables at Maroubra Beach in Sydney’s south. The application was first reported by CommsDay. It is also separately proposing that the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) extend the boundary of the existing southern Sydney cable protection zone, which spans North Bondi to South Coogee. Google is building two cables under its Pacific Connect Initiative – Tabua and ... Read more