Democracy and the 15 Hour Week

By Ted Smillie - Monday, September 25th, 2017

British economist John Maynard Keynes predicted in an essay, Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren (1930), that by 2030 our grandchildren would be working a 15 hour week, due to the power of compound interest  and to technological advances.  Keynsian economics gradually gained acceptance during the 1930s, then revolutionized global government economic policy in the aftermath […]

Security cameras vulnerable to attacks using infrared light

By American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev - Tuesday, September 19th, 2017

Researchers have demonstrated that security cameras infected with malware can receive covert signals and leak sensitive information from the very same surveillance devices used to protect facilities.

Australian government password rules are insecure nonsense

By John Quiggin - Thursday, September 7th, 2017

The agencies dedicated to “protecting our secrets” are insisting on a password security method that even the Daily Mail knows is nonsense, writes John Quiggin.

I recently had to log in to the website of an Australian government agency with which I deal from to time. To my surprise, I was presented with a message saying that my password had expired and that, under a new security policy, password expire every 90 days, and they must contain a mixture of alphanumeric and special characters (this is called a composition rule)

Another day, another scandal: CBA blames customers for identity theft

By Michael West, Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney - Monday, September 4th, 2017

Barry Lakeman has had a gutful. “I’ve got bone cancer,” says the 59-year-old farmer from outback Western Australia. “The chances of pulling through are about 60/40.” Worse, he says, his son is disabled. He has epilepsy and a brain tumour and requires special medical treatment.

On top of all this, Lakeman is a victim of identity theft. Last month, local police called to ask him if he’d lost his gun licence. They had found it, they told him. It displayed his photo but the licence number didn’t match. “It was a forgery … the number at the top of the card was different from the number on my card.”