Mainstream media warns not to identify emu killer, as cop's son?

(illustration taken from social media)

Even though UK's dailymail published the details of the man who deliberately ran over 10 emus with his 4WD vehicle as 20 year old Jacob Macdonald, a police officer's son, the Australian mainstream media has not mentioned his name as an example by adelaidenow.com.au publication stating:

“We ask that people do not ‘name and shame’ alleged suspects on social media. This both compromises potential prosecutions, as well as risks incorrectly identifying innocent people.”

Getting it wrong on identifying alleged criminals can have devastating consequences for those who have been incorrectly identified, but there is another aspect to criminal law that many may not be aware of.

There are many court cases from the state's Supreme Courts to the High Court of Australia which are of significance to the community that hold powerful remedies with regards to the unlawful actions of the authorities in Australia.

There are also court cases that are sealed, where they are not available to the general population, where there is no reference to their existence in online resources.

In some cases this is done to allegedly protect victims, or more specifically the criminals, but in other circumstances people have put together documentation to the courts of how the authorities have subverted the justice system, with documentation that is undeniable, exposing the corruption of the Australian courts or those in government.

MANY should be aware that the system takes care of its own, where one of the 'own' is the state's police force.

Apparently the general population is told that every person is equal in the eyes of the law, but to many the reality is quite different. 

MANY police officers get away with criminal offences with either a slap on the wrist or a paid 'vacation' (suspension with pay), whereas if a person from the general population would be charged with the same criminal offence, the outcome is quite different.

By drawing attention to the fact that the person is the son of a police officer, would be of benefit to the community to indicate that 'justice is served' equally in the eyes of the law.

In Australia MANY judicial registrars / magistrates / judges 'err' at law, and the more people witness this the better it is for the accused or rather the person harmed by the law.

There is plenty of fraud within the archives that people in government do not want the general population to be aware of where one set of documents comes to mind that being the secret letters regarding Whitlam's dismissal in 1975,  between the Australia governor general, John Kerr and the Queen.

Nothing to hide nothing to fear, right?

Reminder: Australia is a nanny state.

Mainstream media's lies on Melbourne's 'growth'

If one was to be reading an article by The Age publication of the headline "A city bursting at the seems: Melbourne's massive growth", one would have the comprehension that the conditions are so favourable that the people of Melbourne are on a breeding spree to populate the planet with their litter.

When we use the word growth with regards to population, we would associate this term with the words 'growth rate' in relation to natural growth rate or more specifically a statistic called fertility rate (a figure pertaining to births per woman; 1.83 for 2015 in Australia), where the figure relates to an overall percentage, for example 1.4% of Australia in 2016.

Australia's federal government has taken an action of dumping approx. 2500 people per week into Melbourne, creating pressure and stresses as a result causing a great deal of angst among the good people under the corporation of the City of Melbourne (in reference to an 1852 law).

As a result Melbourne's traffic has skyrocketed, where now gridlock is the norm, made worse by infrastructure projects in a lot of places, to satisfy the traffic of yesteryear rather than the future.

Years ago the Royal Automotive Club of Victoria mentioned that traffic jams are an assault on the family unit as this is time which could be as little as two hours per day needlessly taken away from children or one's partner.

The public transport system is stretched beyond its capacity, a capacity which is calculated in arrears based on natural growth and not a sudden onslaught.

With every second street's older houses being demolished to make way for units for anything between 3 to 8 dwellings, this puts extra strain on the pipes which are calculated to carry an amount of water base on a dwelling size of approx 30% of the total land area, where new residences now can take up 90% of the land.

The good ol' government slogan of "good for the economy" maybe in relation to the building industry does not really cut it anymore, especially when an action makes life more difficult for the current inhabitants.

'Good for the economy' does not necessarily man good for the people.

Another passive aggressive action brought to you by the people in government, supported by a corporate media headline lie.

You'd swear that Eryk Bagshaw was working for a Rupert Murdoch publication.

Tax Havens built into Australian law since 1953 re: Moeliker v Chapman

On the infamous High Court of Australia case; Moeliker v Chapman, the question of taxation was stayed in the court.

Also, a bit of editing had to be done before official publication in the Commonwealth Law Reports.

 Which brings us to:

"...Since 1953 tax laws for multinationals have allowed the evasion of taxes on corporate profits tax havens have existed for the wealthy and continue to exist. The tax office admits this it is not a legal entity, how can it be party to a treaty..."

 

From the document by Kevin W.D. Thompson from 2009:

submitted to the "PARLIAMENT of AUSTRALIA"

at: https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House_of_Representatives_Committees?url=jsct/october2002/subs/sub1to1-2.pdf

Three month delay in public news media on fake bank apps

(illustration: Mr Mackie, South Park)

There is no real reason for 'apps' to exist in order for a person to conduct business transactions with the entities that have an online presence.

The Bank of Melbourne app, actually opens up the device's web browser in order for the user to conduct their business, therefore negating the need for the use of that app.

Does the Australian Government's Bureau of Meteorology need an app or instead put the information on a mobile friendly web address, which it has. 

The duopoly of Apple and Google, have muscled out all competitors and alternative mobile phone operating systems, where the duopoly makes billions of dollars annually from data collected from the app development industry.


Despite whatever assurances the corporations give with regards to the weeding out of suspect apps, the real severity of the risks are being deliberately kept from the public eye.

It took three months before information made the public news media about a suspect banking app, where the claim was that it was shut down within hours of the app being published.

Apps are a closed system, where the end user is unable to scrutinise where their data is going, unlike a website's publicly available source code.

Apps are a real danger to the unsuspecting consumers, but since their existence is aggressively pushed by the duopoly for their huge profitability, it seems that they will be with us for the long run, despite the fact that there are better programming alternatives.

Governments that support the use of their services via apps that must be purchased (for 'free' i.e. no cash exchanged) are supporting data collection by those corporations, which pose a significant risk to the end user's privacy.


We do not support the use of Apple or Google apps.

See article from  20 Sep 2018 by news.com.au of the headline:


CommBank, ANZ hit with scam apps

CUSTOMERS of major Aussie banks have fallen victim to a cunning scam targeting banking apps on mobile phones.

CommBank has been hit with a fake app scam.Source:Supplied

MORE than a thousand CommBank and ANZ customers may have unwittingly handed out their log-in details and credit card numbers after downloading malicious banking apps.

The fake apps went undetected in the Google Play store for weeks and were installed more than 1000 times before IT security research firm ESET raised the alarm in June, The Age reported Thursday.

ESET senior research fellow Nick FitzGerald told the newspaper the apps were discovered during routine checks. He said it was rare for fake banking apps to pass the automated Google Play system.

The fake CommBank and ANZ apps had basic functionality, requesting credit card details or log-in credentials, which may have helped them slip through.

“The apps use obfuscation, which may have contributed to them slipping into the store undetected,” he told The Age, adding code similarities suggested the two apps were the work of the same attacker.

“This is a big concern for anyone who may have handed over personal information. The loss of personally identifiable information can result in financial fraud that may affect you for the rest of your life very negatively.”

CommBank-owned Auckland Savings Bank was also targeted, as were banks in the UK, Switzerland and Poland, and European cryptocurrency exchange Bitpanda, according to the report.

A Google spokesman declined to say how many times the apps were downloaded or how they made it into the Google Play store.

“We remove applications that violate our policies, such as apps that are illegal or that promote hate speech,” he said. “We don’t comment on individual applications — you can check out our policies for more information.”

As the banks were impersonated, not hacked, the scam falls outside Australia’s new mandatory data-breach notification scheme passed into law earlier this year.

A CommBank spokeswoman said the security of customers’ banking details was a “top priority”. “We proactively monitor app stores, and use customer feedback, to identify potential security risks for our customers,” she said.

“Once a suspicious app is identified, we work with the app store to ensure the app is quickly removed or disabled. To protect our customers, we offer the benefit from our 100 per cent Security Guarantee against unauthorised transactions where customers are not at fault.”

An ANZ spokeswoman said the bank was “constantly monitoring for fake ANZ apps and the latest security scams”.

“In June 2018 via a customer we became aware of a fraudulent app called ANZ PayOnGO being advertised on Google Play,” she said. “We worked closely with the Google Play team to have the app removed in a few hours.”

CBA SECURITY ADVICE

Tips on keeping safe when downloading our apps:

• Only install apps from official stores, such as Apple’s App Store or Google Play (for Android phone or tablet).

• Check the name of the publisher before downloading the app.

• Avoid installing apps from links received in an email, social media post, text message or a web page that doesn’t look right. The best way to download an app is to go to the store and download it from there.

• Read user reviews and ratings to assess if an app delivers a good experience.

• Many apps collect and send personal data from your phone, including your location and contacts. Keep on top of this by reviewing and managing permissions for each app. On an iOS device, this can be done under the ‘Settings > Privacy’ function. On an Android device, you can find them under ‘Application Manager’.

• Read the terms of any app looking to access your contacts, location or other personal information when you log in using a third party service (such as Facebook or LinkedIn).

• If a customer notices an unusual transaction on their account, they should contact us on 13 2221 immediately to report it.

• Our apps are published from “Commonwealth Bank of Australia” or “CommSec”. MasterCard publishes two apps for business merchants, “CommBank Simplify Controls” and “CommBank Simplify Payments”, on our behalf.

Source: CommBank

ANZ SECURITY ADVICE

Customers should always check the following before to downloading a new app:

• Check the popularity of the app: thousands of downloads and very few reviews suggests a fake app.

• Check the name of the app or developer and reviews: minor errors in the name, inconsistency with ANZ products or suspicious comments may indicate the app is a fake.

• Check the pattern of reviews including time frames from app launch to commentary: reviews in quick succession of launch are a red flag.

• If in doubt, go to the web page of the developer: lack of details about the developers, and linkage to a legitimate site is another indicator.

• Check that the permissions required by the app are in line with activities you will be performing: if the permissions seem excessive this is another red flag.

• If a customer believes they have downloaded a fake ANZ app please contact us immediately on 1800 033 844

• If they suspect a fake ANZ app is available on Google Play or on the App Store, they should contact hoax@cybersecurity.anz.com

• Information on the latest security alerts can be found on ANZ.com — https://www.anz.com.au/security/fraud-detection/latest-security-alerts/

Source: ANZ

America 'One Of 45 Countries' Infected By Uber-Powerful Israeli Smartphone Spyware

iPhone malware from an Israeli government contractor is spreading across the globe, researchers warn.Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto

Some of the world’s most sophisticated Android and iPhone spyware has been found floating around America for the first time. It's one of as many as 45 countries in which NSO Group malware was uncovered. And together they may represent breaches of American and other nations' computer crime laws against cross-border hacking, not to mention a severe concern for citizens’ privacy, according to the researchers who uncovered the professional spy software.

The malware of concern, dubbed Pegasus, is the creation of NSO Group, an Israeli company valued at close to $1 billion. It can hide on Apple or Google devices, spying via the camera, listening in on conversations through the microphone, stealing documents and siphoning off once-private messages, amongst other surreptitious activities.

NSO has always protested that its tools are designed to be used to track the most heinous criminals, from terrorists to drug cartels. But the company has been caught up in spying scandals in Mexico and the United Arab Emirates. In both cases, civil rights organizations were up in arms that the iPhone malware had targeted activists, journalists and lawyers, among others who appeared entirely innocent of any crimes. Just last month, Forbes reported that an Amnesty researcher focusing on issues in the UAE had been targeted by NSO spyware. And most recently, leaked emails included in lawsuits in Israel and Cyprus against NSO Group appeared to show the company had hacked the phone of a journalist working at an Arab newspaper.

Now it seems infections of NSO’s Pegasus tool have metastasized across more nations than previously believed. In a report released Tuesday, researchers from Citizen Lab, based out of the University of Toronto, claimed Pegasus had spread its wings in as many as 45 countries. Previously, Citizen Lab told Forbes it had evidence of as many as 174 individual infections across Android and iOS phones.

Bill Marczak, one of the Citizen Lab researchers behind today’s report, said it was “very concerning” to see Pegasus infections across as many as 45 countries. He said six of those nations were “known spyware abusers,” including Bahrain, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan, Morocco and Mexico. Another two on the list, Togo and Uzbekistan, may not have been caught targeting innocents with malware before but had “dubious human rights records,” Marczak added.

“It indicates the market for these tools remains largely unregulated. And as long as that is the case, repressive regimes will use them to covertly surveil and invisibly sabotage people holding governments to account.”

NSO Group, for its part, said its products weren’t designed to work in the U.S. and claimed there were inaccuracies in the Citizen Lab report.

Hunting a Pegasus

Citizen Lab was able to track down Pegasus infections by creating “fingerprints.” They are formed of unique signifiers of the spy software. For instance, a form of encryption could be unique to the malware, or Web servers associated with its snooping. Citizen Lab is keeping those fingerprints secret for now but found they could then be detected by scanning the internet.

In total, the researchers discovered 36 “distinct operators” of the NSO tool, many of whom are likely customers. Ten appeared to have infected systems across multiple countries, including the U.K. and America, which may be a breach of U.S. law.

As per the Citizen Lab report, handed to Forbes ahead of publication: “The scope of this activity suggests that government-exclusive spyware is widely used to conduct activities that may be illegal in the countries where the targets are located.

“For example, we have identified several possible Pegasus customers not linked to the United States, but with infections in U.S. IP space. While some of these infections may reflect usage of out-of-country VPN or satellite internet service by targets, it is possible that several countries may be actively violating United States law by penetrating devices located within the U.S..”

VPNs, or Virtual Private Networks, typically take internet traffic through different servers across various geographies. It’s possible NSO or its customers have used VPN servers in America, rather than infecting cellphones.

The company has repeatedly tried to break the American market. It once set up a company called Westbridge Technologies to sell into the U.S. that was acquired by an American private equity firm, Francisco Partners, in 2014. But there’s been no clear evidence so far that it managed to find clients within the States.

Marczak said there were suspected infections from three separate operators of the Pegasus malware. Two were interested in matters related to the Middle East, the other on Mexico.

“It's hard to unequivocally rule out factors like VPNs or satellite connections,” Marczak told Forbes. “That said, the ISPs where we found the suspected infections were Cox, Comcast and Time Warner. My mental model of these companies is that they provide cable services and not necessarily VPN or satellite teleports.”

Another five operators were found focusing on European countries, including Croatia, Hungary, Latvia, Poland and Switzerland.

NSO response

NSO Group said it worked in full compliance with all countries' applicable laws, including export control regulations.

“Our products have saved the lives of thousands of people, prevented suicide terror attacks, helped convict drug cartel lords, facilitated complex crime investigations and returned kidnapped children to their parents. These are just a few examples of the critical security support our systems have provided worldwide,” a spokesperson said in an emailed statement sent to Forbes.

They said there were some problems with the Citizen Lab research. In particular, NSO does not sell in many of the 45 countries listed, the spokesperson added, noting that all contracts went through a business ethics committee.

“The product will not operate outside of approved countries. As an example, the product is specifically designed to not operate in the USA,” the spokesperson said.

Marczak said that, given there were 33 suspected operators with infections across 45 suspected countries, the list necessarily included nations that do not themselves operate Pegasus.

Source: Thomas Brewster, forbes.com

Royal commission into banking Letters Patent

See document (265KB, 6pages):