Republished from: https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2024/05/15/it-s-a-scam.html Securing cyber frontiers Australians are losing more money to scams than ever before – more than $3 billion a year – in what appears to be a ‘golden age’ for scammers. Cybersecurity expert Dr Suranga Seneviratne is researching ways to outsmart them and to avoid data breaches. He believes scams are about… Read more: It’s a scam

Suranga Seneviratne, University of Sydney and Carol Hsu, University of Sydney Are you tired of receiving SMS scams pretending to be from Australia Post, the tax office, MyGov and banks? You’re not alone. Each year, thousands of Australians fall victim to SMS scams. And losses have surged in recent years. In 2022 SMS scam losses… Read more: Scammers can slip fake texts into legitimate SMS threads. Will a government crackdown stop them?

Current conditions the perfect ‘breeding ground’ for scams. The pandemic, ongoing lockdowns and tax return time are leading to a perfect scam storm, says Dr Suranga Seneviratne from the School of Computer Science. Dr Suranga Seneviratne is a computer scientist and cybersecurity expert from the Faculty of Engineering who warns that conditions caused by the pandemic… Read more: COVID, lockdowns, tax time: scammers pose triple threat

What will 2020 have in store for cybersecurity? Tighter regulation, increasingly sophisticated attacks on key infrastructure and AI-driven cyber warfare, according to Dr Suranga Seneviratne from the School of Computer Science. Internet of (Insecure) Things “Internet-of-Things technology is becoming increasingly popular, with smart home devices on the rise in Australia,” said cybersecurity expert from the… Read more: Cybersecurity trends in 2020

Suranga Seneviratne, University of Sydney As survey results pile, it’s becoming clear Australians are sceptical about how their online data is tracked and used. But one question worth asking is: are our fears founded? The short answer is: yes. In a survey of 2,000 people completed last year, Privacy Australia found 57.9% of participants weren’t… Read more: The ugly truth: tech companies are tracking and misusing our data, and there’s little we can do

School of Computer Science academic, Dr Suranga Seneviratne shares his advice on how to stay safe online to avoid malware and hackers corrupting your devices. 1. Keep your devices up-to-date “If a manufacturer or Operating System provider recommends a software update for any device you use, be it a laptop, desktop, tablet, or smartphone, simply… Read more: How to stay safe online

Suranga Seneviratne, University of Sydney It’s been a busy few weeks for cybersecurity researchers and reporters. There was the Facebook hack, the Google plus data breach, and allegations that the Chinese government implanted spying chips in hardware components. In the midst of all this, some other important news was overlooked. In early September, Apple removed… Read more: Some cybersecurity apps could be worse for privacy than nothing at all