Good morning, and a very happy Starfield day to all the gamers reading today. Let’s get you up to speed on the tech news.
1. The breaches keep on comin’
The Australian Privacy Commissioner’s latest Notifiable Data Breaches report has outlined 409 data breaches that have occurred between January and June, up from 404 at this time last year. March was the busiest month for breaches, and throughout the recorded period, malicious and criminal attacks made up the greatest percentage of breaches, followed by human error, and then system errors. On average, brute force attacks affected the most individuals on average, and the health and finance industries reported the most breaches between January and June (which is fairly standard). Stay vigilant out there.
2. Ads on Instagram and Facebook reportedly featuring drugs, fake cash, and illegal goods
As reported by 404 Media, ads on Facebook, Instagram, and Facebook Messenger appear to offer illegal goods, such as drugs and counterfeit cash (even a monkey, according to Crikey), with bad actors paying for ad spots on the social media apps. Obviously, the sale of these things go against Meta’s own policies and are illegal, but it goes to show that the tech company is failing to moderate all of its advertising material. “Unfortunately, this might be a consequence of the recent layoffs in trust and safety that Meta has made. Security is an ever-evolving game, and Meta may just no longer have the resources in place to keep up with the tactics bad actors are using to get around policy enforcement,” social media ad spending researcher at New York University Laura Edelson told 404 Media.
3. Facebook to end News service in European countries
Staying on Meta, and Facebook’s News service is being closed in the UK, Germany, and France, as reported by Bloomberg. “We know that people don’t come to Facebook for news and political content – they come to connect with people and discover new opportunities, passions and interests,” the company wrote in a blog post. At the moment, Facebook is currently blocking news material in Canada due to government laws requiring tech companies to pay news providers, and the company said that its existing agreements with publishers in the UK, Germany, and France, whereby which publishers receive a cut for news material engaged with on the site, would be honoured until they expire.
4. Spotify is being used by Swedish criminals to allegedly launder money
Staying in Europe, and The Guardian is reporting that Swedish criminal gangs are using Spotify to launder money, in a way to convert illicit cash to cleaned money through artificially inflated streams. Investigators allege that gangs are paying for false Spotify streams (streams that use bots to artificially inflate streaming metrics) to clean money, with streaming revenue going to artists with ties to gangs. Spotify said to AFP that manipulated streaming was “an industry-wide challenge” and that “Spotify has been working hard to address this issue”.
5. Android 14 may launch alongside the Google Pixel 8
Wrapping up today’s edition on a lighter note, it’s rumoured that Android 14 will be released on the same day that Google will reveal the Pixel 8 (as per GSMArena). It’s highly likely that this will occur on October 4, the date of the next ‘Made By Google’ event, with new features like smarter font scaling, in-depth lock screen customisation, and battery life tweaks set to ship.
BONUS ITEM: Gizmodo Australia is a cat-loving team and we loved Stray, so we can’t wait for this.
What’s on the docket at Annapurna Animation? A ‘Stray’ movie based on the purr-fect video game and a new film from the director of ‘Ice Age,’ among other projects. We’ve got the exclusive details. https://t.co/y8rOz8DJVx
— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) September 5, 2023
See you tomorrow.
Here Are The Cheapest NBN 250 Plans You Can Get Right Now
Whether you’ve got the need for speed or simply looking for a better deal, these are the best prices going right now for the NBN 250 speed tier.