Google has released it's transparency figures for the period January to June 2012 which details requests made by various countries to access user data held by Google. The figures provided by Google only give the total number of requests which (I think) can be a little misleading, I'm no statistician but I thought it might be informative to have a look at the figures relative to population. Other interesting comparisons might relate to law enforcement budget or be somewhat more subjective such as the goverment's stance on data retention.

Australia ranks second behind the US for requests that were complied with when accounting for population, fourth for total requests when accounting for population and ninth for total number of requests.

I think one interesting aspect of the graph below is the discrepancy in certain cases between the number of requests made and the number complied with.

There is simply no excuse for this appalling display of security ignorance by (I assume) Netcomm

Hardcoded passwords leave Telstra routers wide open - Networks - SC Magazine Australia - Secure Business Intelligence

Ouch!.

Not strictly security related, but I wanted to point out an interesting post over on a blog written by Symanetc's Anthony Langsworth titled 'A Clash of Development Cultures'. It is an interesting viewpoint and one that I thing also fits into other IT realms, such as Infrastructure or Security.

I met Anthony while studying for the CISSP, and he's a smart cookie. His blog is worth checking out.

The Australian Attorney-General's office has released the long-awaited Australian Privacy Breach Notification discussion paper [pdf]

It seems to be generating interesting discussion both for and against.

I have commented previously on data breach legislation and haven't really changed my view. The only thing I'd add is that maybe the 'public shaming' fallout isn't as bad as it used to be, simply as the result of so many companies being hacked.

It is interesting that Information Security is back on the political agenda in Australia, as it is to in the United States with President Obama considering using an executive order to reinstate the "Cybersecurity" bill that was previously defeated in the US Senate. Probably not surprising though, as it is an election year....

I haven't read the AG's discussion paper in detail yet, but will hopefully get to it this weekend and provide my thoughts.