Hello, it's Friday, September 23. Here's what you need to get caught up on today's news.
One thing to know…
A senior Optus employee says an IT mistake may have led to the cyber attack that compromised millions of customers' personal details.
The employee spoke to the ABC on the condition of anonymity:
"[It's] still under investigation, however, this breach, like most, appears to come down to human error."
"[They] wanted to make integrating systems easier, to satisfy two-factor authentication regulations from the industry watchdog, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA)."
The process allegedly involved opening up the Optus customer identity database to other systems via what's known as an Application Programming Interface, with the assumption that the API would only be used by authorised company systems.
"Eventually one of the networks it was exposed to was a test network which happened to have internet access."
It's claimed this allowed access to the Optus network from outside the company.
Optus has strenuously denied "human error" was a contributing factor.
If you're an Optus customer dating back to 2017, Optus is still encouraging you to be "extra vigilant" and:
- Look out for any suspicious or unexpected activity across your online accounts and report any fraudulent activity immediately to your provider
- Look out for suspicious emails, texts, phone calls or messages on social media
- Never click on any links that look suspicious or provide passwords, personal or financial information
Referendums are being held in Russian-held Ukraine
Thousands of Ukrainians in Russia-controlled territories are casting their votes to decide whether they'll join Russia.
Here's the lowdown:
- Referendums are being held in the Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia provinces, which represent about 15 per cent of Ukrainian territory.
- They'll run from Friday to Tuesday.
- Russia says the votes are an opportunity for people in the region to express their view.
- Ukraine says Russia wants to frame the referendum results as a sign of popular support, then use them as a pretext for annexation — similar to its takeover of Crimea in 2014.
The news Australia is searching for
- Joelle Rich: Actor Johnny Depp is reportedly dating Joelle Rich, a lawyer who represented him in his UK defamation trial.
- Alex Jones: The US conspiracy theorist lashed out during a trial to determine how much he owes the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting, raging about 'liberals' and refusing to apologise to the packed gallery of victims' families.
News you might have missed
- Foreign Minister Penny Wong says she pressed her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi to unwind trade restrictions during a meeting in New York.
One more thing: A cryptic new clue in the world chess drama
In started with five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen resigning from an online match against American teenager Hans Niemann after making just one move.
It turned heads because it was their first encounter since Carlsen pulled out of a tournament after losing to Niemann and posting a cryptic tweet that many felt insinuated his opponent had cheated.
Now Carlsen has broken his silence by saying that it's become easy to cheat at chess. He also stopped short of directly Niemann of doing so.
But we still don't know why Carlsen withdrew.
"I cannot particularly speak on that, but people can draw their own conclusion and they certainly have," he said.
That's it for now
We'll be back Monday with more.
ABC/wires
