New scam warning for popular apps
Telstra has cautioned its customers against flocking to encrypted messaging platforms, flagging users may be more vulnerable to scam messages and calls.
While the security of end-to-end encryption means messages can only be accessed by the sender and receiver, limited visibility for telecommunication providers means their scam blocking technologies cannot scan or filter suspicious activity.
Telstra's Cyber expert Darren Pauli said while encryption was a 'wonderful thing', the nature of these platforms make it tough for Telco's to monitor for potential scams.
'(Encryption) protects banking, it protects everything. And it doesn't care about what the contents are that it's protecting. It just works,' he told NewsWire.
'I think more broadly that wherever the scams are happening, that platform should really genuinely put effort in and money in to really try to crush this.
'It's one of those things that you have to do for the broader security of the internet.' Telstra is warning customers against flocking to encrypted messaging apps. NewsWire / Max Mason-Hubers Credit: News Corp Australia
The telecommunications provider has also flagged an uptick in sophisticated recruitment lure scams, offering fake job opportunities that seem legitimate, and a rise in AI-enhanced scams and deepfakes.
In the 12 months to June, Telstra was forced to block more than 18 million scam calls a month, almost double the number from the previous year.
It also intercepted an average of more than 8 million scam text messages a month, and observed a 13 per cent year-on-year increase in reports of suspicious contacts.
'These fake job offers and recruitment scams are particularly nasty … they're targeting people who are vulnerable,' Mr Pauli said.
'They might be looking for work or whatever, and they will come out with offers of work from home, with good remuneration, and a quick interview process … So these are really quite lucrative and enticing offers. Australia's largest Telco has warned of increasingly sophisticated scams that bypass its scam block technology through encrypted messaging apps. Supplied Credit: Supplied
'The tragedy really is that these scams are all about harvesting personal information (which) they then use for identity theft and sell it on the dark market.'
Despite the increasingly sophisticated methods used by scammers, the National Anti-Scam Centre's Targeting report recorded a 25 per cent drop in losses between 2023 and 2024.
Telstra's 'Cleaner Pipes' cyber initiative comes amid a massive advocacy push across the telecommunications and banking industry, spreading awareness to the harms of scams.
'I'm genuinely impressed with what the industry as a whole has done. It's remarkable stuff,' Mr Pauli said.
'They are frustrating scammers who are trying to hammer out texts or phone calls and it's not working and it costs (the scammers) money.
'If they weren't such terrible people I'd almost have some sympathy for them.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Perth Now
38 minutes ago
- Perth Now
Duelling roundtables hit Canberra
Nationals senator Matt Canavan says expanding Australia's economy will require a smaller government following a his own economic reform roundtable challenging Jim Chalmers' three-day summit. The Queensland senator labelled the official talks, which canvassed reducing regulation to boost efficiencies in housing, as a 'fake productivity roundtable'. Instead Senator Canavan said his 'public' table was open to media and involved participants including the Productivity Commission's first chair, Gary Banks, and former assistant Treasury secretary David Pearl. Participants discussed the importance of eliminating bracket creep, reducing growth of the NDIS, scrapping net-zero targets and fiscal discipline. Senator Canavan advocated for less intervention from Canberra, saying that 'if we want our economy to be bigger, we need our government to be smaller'. 'The overburdensome red tape in our housing sector, construction sectors and others are holding our nation back,' he said. Queensland senator Matt Canavan hosted his own productivity roundtable in parliament on Wednesday. NewsWire/ Martin Ollman Credit: News Corp Australia 'The ineffective interventions in our energy market, such as the reckless and destructive rush to renewables, and the futile and failing net zero policies, are restricting the latent potential of our great nation. 'We need to stop Canberra from telling people what car they can drive, what power they should use, what food they can even eat.' Prof Banks also took aim at Labor for high government spending, which had strained private sector growth. 'Unfortunately, attention to regulation has been more about increasing, rather than reducing it or improving it, and the government's productivity agenda is mainly a spending agenda,' he said. Economic Reform Roundtable attendees were invited to the Lodge for drinks after day 2 of the meeting. NewsWire / Martin Ollman Credit: News Corp Australia Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet Steven Kennedy and CBA chief executive Matt Comyn arrive at the Lodge. NewsWire / Martin Ollman Credit: News Corp Australia Meanwhile official talks focused on slashing regulation, with participants largely supporting a pause to the National Construction Code amid criticisms the overbearing regulations weigh down housing approvals and increase costs. While there was general consensus on the need to reduce regulation to speed up housing approvals, Wentworth teal MP Allegra Spender said participants did not agree to whether the code should be paused or for new changes to be delayed until the next review due in 2029. Although there were concerns around whether this would affect environment standards, she described discussions as 'constructive'. 'I think that we should come out with something on the Construction Code,' she said. 'I think the government is looking at how to get the construction code right from a point of view of not making too many unnecessary changes that makes it just more expensive to build.' Allegra Spender tipped an announcement on pausing or freezing the National Construction Code following the summit. NewsWire/ Martin Ollman Credit: News Corp Australia NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey, who attended the roundtable representing the states, said there was 'pretty strong consensus emerging that that is a sensible step forward'. 'Regardless of what's in the National Construction Code, states already have strong rules around building safety, building standards, energy efficiency, and so from our perspective,' he said. 'If the National Code is frozen, it gives us a bit more time to get the interactions between national standards and state standards clear and sorted, but equally, give a lot of confidence to people who are looking to build right now.' However former Labor cabinet minister Ed Husic, who didn't participate in the roundtable, said he would be 'concerned about a pause to the National Construction Code,' and said it would a repeat of a 'bad mistake of the Coalition'. However he conceded the code was 'in a funk,' and said a review was a better option. 'Think about the fact that the last time we put pause in the National Construction Code we ended up having to scramble and put on hold a whole host of changes,' he told the ABC. 'That makes really hard for the construction sector the building sector to deal with a lot of changes at once. There is a much more sensible way to get it done.'
Sydney Morning Herald
5 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Canva now bigger than Telstra, Woolies
Sydney-based software powerhouse Canva has kicked off an employee share sale valuing the company at an all-time high of $65 billion, making it more valuable than corporate heavyweights Telstra, Woodside and Woolworths. Canva has made billionaires out of its co-founders, and the share sale is set to make some of its 5000-plus employees – referred to as 'Canvanauts' – instant millionaires. Canva co-founder Cliff Obrecht – now one of Australia's richest people, worth an estimated $9 billion – said more than 240 million people now used Canva's products every month globally. Canva was founded in Perth 11 years ago as a small, more fun rival to design software products such as Adobe Photoshop, and has since grown into one of the most widely used platforms on the internet, with schools, businesses and individuals using it to create everything from marketing designs to birthday invitations. Executives have spent the past two years positioning Canva as a key player in the generative AI arms race, making acquisitions including Australia's most-hyped AI start-up for a reported $320 million, and marketing tech start-up MagicBrief for a reported $10 million. Canva's AI tools have been used more than 20 billion times to date, making it one of the fastest-growing AI firms globally. By some metrics, it's the fastest-growing enterprise in Australian history. Obrecht co-founded Canva with now-wife Melanie Perkins and former Google employee Cameron Adams, and the company is now one of Australia's most valuable. Unlike many of its peers in the software sector, Canva is profitable and has been for the past eight years, raking in $US3.3 billion ($4.6 billion) in revenue annually. Loading Canva's valuation has see-sawed moderately over the past few years amid a global 'tech wreck' that tore through company valuations and forced many into lay-offs, but the company has maintained its position as one of the darlings of the local sector. Canva continued to hire and avoided any redundancy program, though its valuation bottomed out at $39 billion in 2022 when key investors Blackbird, Square Peg and Airtree cut its valuation. It was most recently valued at $56 billion earlier this year.
The Age
5 hours ago
- The Age
Canva now bigger than Telstra, Woolies
Sydney-based software powerhouse Canva has kicked off an employee share sale valuing the company at an all-time high of $65 billion, making it more valuable than corporate heavyweights Telstra, Woodside and Woolworths. Canva has made billionaires out of its co-founders, and the share sale is set to make some of its 5000-plus employees – referred to as 'Canvanauts' – instant millionaires. Canva co-founder Cliff Obrecht – now one of Australia's richest people, worth an estimated $9 billion – said more than 240 million people now used Canva's products every month globally. Canva was founded in Perth 11 years ago as a small, more fun rival to design software products such as Adobe Photoshop, and has since grown into one of the most widely used platforms on the internet, with schools, businesses and individuals using it to create everything from marketing designs to birthday invitations. Executives have spent the past two years positioning Canva as a key player in the generative AI arms race, making acquisitions including Australia's most-hyped AI start-up for a reported $320 million, and marketing tech start-up MagicBrief for a reported $10 million. Canva's AI tools have been used more than 20 billion times to date, making it one of the fastest-growing AI firms globally. By some metrics, it's the fastest-growing enterprise in Australian history. Obrecht co-founded Canva with now-wife Melanie Perkins and former Google employee Cameron Adams, and the company is now one of Australia's most valuable. Unlike many of its peers in the software sector, Canva is profitable and has been for the past eight years, raking in $US3.3 billion ($4.6 billion) in revenue annually. Loading Canva's valuation has see-sawed moderately over the past few years amid a global 'tech wreck' that tore through company valuations and forced many into lay-offs, but the company has maintained its position as one of the darlings of the local sector. Canva continued to hire and avoided any redundancy program, though its valuation bottomed out at $39 billion in 2022 when key investors Blackbird, Square Peg and Airtree cut its valuation. It was most recently valued at $56 billion earlier this year.
