Hello, hope you’re well. Let’s jump straight into the five things that caught our attention in the tech world this morning.
1. Optus breach brings on privacy law overhaul
In response to the Optus data breach, the Australian government is moving to overhaul our privacy laws. Basically, the new laws would require any company that suffered a data breach to share details with banks about customers who had potentially been affected. This is, of course, in an effort to minimise fraud. Meanwhile, the Opposition has resubmitted its Ransomware Bill. Anyway, here’s Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil speaking on ABC 7:30 last night.
With how fast things are moving, we’re about five years behind where we should be in cyber protections. It’s simply not good enough.#abc730 pic.twitter.com/5Ixnh84mzG
— Clare O’Neil MP (@ClareONeilMP) September 26, 2022
2. Big Tech Senate probe is go
Still on the Australian government but switching from Big Telco to Big Tech and a new Senate inquiry will examine the nature and extent of the influence of foreign-owned Big Tech companies Google, Meta, Microsoft, Apple and Amazon have on the Australian market and public debate. As reported by InnovationAus, the inquiry went unopposed in the Senate on Monday, with the matter now referred to the Economics References Committee.
3. Edward Snowden is now a Russian citizen
Storied NSA whistleblower turned cybersecurity activist has a new credential to add to his name: Russian citizen. Russian President Vladimir Putin granted the 39-year-old American whistleblower citizenship nearly 10 years after he blew the lid off the National Security Agency’s vast domestic and international spying apparatus, according to Reuters. Those revelations set off an international manhunt for the former intelligence contractor which eventually landed him in Russia where he was granted asylum and now, citizenship.
4. T-minus 15 minutes for NASA’s DART hits an asteroid
The demise of DART is finally upon us, as the NASA spacecraft is on a collision course with the tiny Dimorphos asteroid. There’s less than 15 minutes until the DART spacecraft is scheduled to impact its target asteroid. Watch live in the stream just below and head over here to read everything you need to know about the mission.
5. An Instagram feed without shopping shoved in your face
As reported by The Verge, Instagram is testing home feeds without a shopping tab. According to the report, some Instagram users have noticed the shopping tab, previously on the bottom navigation bar, has been replaced with a notifications tab. Shopping, meanwhile, has been moved to a second menu, buried among options like settings and saved posts. Instagram introduced the shopping tab in an effort to get users to buy products directly on the platform. Yuck indeed.
BONUS ITEM: That ‘meteor impact’ at a school in Tasmania was in fact just a way to promote STEM.
See you tomorrow.