Latest News

Telstra has patched a data breach on its business website that had the potential to reveal personal information, such as date of birth, of 700 customers.

Telstra confirmed to ZDNet Australia yesterday afternoon that the only details that could be sighted without the need to log-in were the name, address and account number of a customer. But afterwards, it was confirmed that a customer account holder's date of birth (DOB) could also be seen.

An audit report released yesterday has criticised the implementation of a system meant to combat identity theft and fraudulent use of stolen identities.

The system, called the National Document Verification Service (nDVS) was intended to provide government agencies with a means of checking documents against the records of the agency which issued them. If the details in the document were correct, a "Yes" response was to be transmitted. Otherwise a "No" would be returned. To function, the system needed an independent hub that connected the document issuers and users.

The Australian Privacy Commissioner, Karen Curtis, has called for businesses and government agencies across the country to publicise their commitment to good privacy practices in the lead up to Privacy Awareness Week, 2-8 May 2010.

"While so many organisations have good practices in place to protect their customers' data, they could be doing so much more to convey this message to their client base," Ms Curtis said.

SENATE consideration of the Rudd Government's controversial Healthcare Identifiers Bill will not take place until budget day on May 11.

This follows a tumultuous week of testimony and a rushed report recommending adoption despite Coalition concerns and calls for amendments.

WITH a large privacy law reform agenda before federal parliament this year, Karen Curtis says her office will remain focused on "business as usual".

The big-ticket item for government is a planned rewrite of the Privacy Act for the digital age, in response to recommendations by the Australian Law Reform Commission. But ahead of this revamp is the Healthcare Identifiers Bill, now before parliament.

WITH a large privacy law reform agenda before federal parliament this year, Karen Curtis says her office will remain focused on "business as usual". <!-- google_ad_section_end(name=story_introduction) --><!-- // .story-intro --><!-- google_ad_section_start(name=story_body, weight=high) -->

The big-ticket item for government is a planned rewrite of the Privacy Act for the digital age, in response to recommendations by the Australian Law Reform Commission. But ahead of this revamp is the Healthcare Identifiers Bill, now before parliament.