Gooooooood morning and welcome to a brand new week. We’ve got a handful of tech-related things to share with you this morning, so without further ado…
1. NRL star lost a bit of cash to a crypto scam
For the first (and probably last) time, we’re bringing you some news from the NRL world. According to the Daily Telegraph, a con-artist inmate allegedly duped disgraced NRL star Jarryd Hayne out of $780,000 in a Bitcoin sting. Per the report (Fox Sports has one not behind a paywall), it happened while the pair were locked up in Cooma Jail together. It is understood fraudster Ishan Seenar Sappideen allegedly told inmates he had collected $290 million working for an investment company alongside Australian billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes and could earn them big returns if they invested with him. Wowzers.
2. Diablo IV gets DDoS’d
Diablo IV was dealing with a DDoS attack over the weekend, seeing players continuously getting disconnected from the alway-online action-RPG during one of the highest traffic periods of the week. “We are investigating the login issues affecting Diablo IV and working to resolve these as soon as possible,” read a message from the Battle.net customer service account tweeted early on June 25. “Players may experience queues while we work on the issue.” Later in the day, however, the company confirmed it was still investigating the issues, and that the game was in fact dealing with a DDoS attack. Read more on Kotaku Australia.
When it comes to live game service issues, there are numerous spaces where a small connection hiccup can interrupt your plans. Some can happen in your home, or between you and the servers.
Worst case of all – groups issuing DDOS attacks.
Much love to the devs dealing with this. https://t.co/ZoHayUh8eX
— dmg04 (@A_dmg04) June 25, 2023
3. New cyber security coordinator gets named
The Australian government announced the appointment of Air Marshal Darren Goldie as the country’s first National Cyber Security Coordinator. Starting his term as the National Cyber Security Coordinator on July 3, Goldie will be charged with doing what he can to “ensure Australia is best positioned to respond to the opportunities and threats of the digital age”. This will include leading national cyber security policy, the coordination of responses to major cyber incidents, whole-of-government cyber incident preparedness efforts, and strengthening of Commonwealth cyber security capability.
4. Just turn it off and on again
In announcing the above on Friday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese gave some cybersecurity advice of his own: He said you should turn your smartphones off and on again once a day as a cybersecurity measure. Per the Guardian, Albanese said, “We need to mobilise the private sector, we need to mobilise, as well, consumers,” followed by “We all have a responsibility. Simple things, turn your phone off every night for five minutes. For people watching this, do that every 24 hours, do it while you’re brushing your teeth or whatever you’re doing”.
5. New $300M data centre for AWS in Sydney
Over to iTnews and the publication is reporting that Amazon Web Services (the cloud arm of the tech behemoth) is hoping to build another $300 million data centre in Sydney’s west under a program of work codenamed ‘Project Echidna’. Per the report, AWS will need about two years to build and fit out the two-storey data centre, which is intended to support 35.2MW of IT equipment. An adjacent data centre on the same site is currently under construction, and plans for the ‘Project Echidna’ facility are believed to have been in existence since about 2018, iTnews said.
BONUS ITEM: Something cute to get the week started.
See you back here tomorrow!