Archived News for IT Professionals

A consortium headed by McKinsey and Company has been selected to lead the national change and adoption process as Australia moves to introduce Personally Controlled Electronic Health Records (PCEHR) next year.

Health Minister, Nicola Roxon, said the National Change and Adoption Partner will help educate and support the training and information needs of the health workforce who will use the system.

“The consortium will plan, design and develop training, guidance and tools in collaboration with clinicians and software providers. It will also provide change management support for clinicians including at the 12 lead implementation sites.

Optus has been found guilty by the Federal Court of breaching the Trade Practices Act by engaging in misleading and deceptive conduct in its advertising campaigns for its ‘Think Bigger’ and Supersonic’ broadband internet plans.

Telstra CEO, David Thodey, has announced major changes to the company’s operations to position it for future development.

Cloud backup innovator incriptus has partnered with Loftus IT, enabling the Australian IT solutions provider to offer its customers the advantages of lower backup infrastructure costs and an easy path for growth.


The new solution, Loftus BACKUP powered by incriptus, will allow Loftus customers on smaller networks, especially those using laptops, to form their own eco-friendly backup cloud.


Loftus IT Managing Director David Bullock says there has been an ever-growing demand from its customers for secure, affordable, scalable data backup.


“Up till now, backing up data into the cloud has meant sending encrypted files to large, remotely located data centres that are huge energy consumers,” Mr Bullock said.


“incriptus has changed all that with its distributed backup process – it’s the most efficient process I’ve seen and we will be working with incriptus to refine the product for a larger segment of our enterprise market.”


Loftus IT will add Loftus BACKUP to its unique portfolio of consulting, infrastructure services, application development and integration, procurement and support expertise.


The incriptus backup process uses the unused space to be found on all computer hard drives by first encrypting files, then fragmenting them and distributing the fragments to computers throughout the incriptus user network.


incriptus CEO Trevor Glen says that, as a result, no file can be reconstructed from any individual fragment and no complete document resides on any single computer in any single location.


“It all happens in the background and the only place those pieces can all come back together again is on the originating computer,” Mr Glen says. “No data centre operator ever has access to a complete file and no natural disaster can wipe out a single location of backed up data.


“Users don’t even have to worry about their files being lost if computers in the incriptus network fail as there is built-in error correction.”


The Loftus IT backup solution has the added advantage of being environmentally friendly as it does not require the use of and continuous building of data centres that already consume about 2% of the world’s electricity.


“The incriptus powered product will actually result in Loftus IT customers forming their own user cloud,” Mr Glen said.


For information on Loftus IT, visit www.loftusit.com.au. For more information about the incriptus technology, visit www.incriptus.com.

A research team at RMIT University will use a $255,000 Australian Research Council Linkage Grant to develop methods of detecting internal threats to website security.

The Victorian Government’s announcement of its new eServices Panel has prompted an angry response from the IT companies shut out from government tenders.

Australian information security company, Pure Hacking, has challenged the global software development community to improve its development standards and build secure software.

Darwin International Airport has become the eighth and final Australian international airport to implement the SmartGate  automated border processing system.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has published an Information Paper to assist providers of hybrid fibre-coaxial (HFC) and fibre to the premises (FTTP) broadband internet services in complying with the Competition and Consumer Act 2010.

Australia’s  national ICT research centre, NICTA has unveiled three new products at the international biotechnology forum, Bio2011, in Washington.

Just under $143 billion dollars worth of internet orders were received by Australian businesses in 2009-10, up 15% on the previous year, according to figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Wholesale trade and manufacturing industries continued their lead as the main businesses receiving online orders, both at over 40%. The retail industry came in at fifth place.

Nearly all (94%) of Australia's large businesses had a web presence at 30 June 2010, while micro businesses (employing up to four people) are still the least likely to, with only about one-third offering some form of web presence. Broadband dominated as the internet access method (97%), with little variation between industries.

Primary industry - agriculture, forestry and fishing - was least likely to place online orders, with just over one-quarter (26%) using the internet to make purchases.

Innovation is also on the rise, with 44% of Australian businesses undertaking some form of innovation - developing or introducing of new or significantly improved goods, services, processes or methods - in 2009-10.

Large businesses were more than twice as likely to undertake innovative activity than micro businesses (74% compared to 36%).

Wholesale trade was the most innovative, with almost 60% of businesses in the industry reporting some form of innovation. Innovation in the agriculture, forestry and fishing industry was reported by about one-third of those businesses.

Further information is available in Summary of IT Use and Innovation in Australian Business

A co-operative team from RMIT University and the Australian National University (ANU) have developed a method that will allow mechanical pressure into electricity.

Telstra chief executive David Thodey has promised to push ahead with promoting his company’s wireless services despite the $11 billion deal between the telco and the National Broadband Network Co (NBN Co).

Telstra has claimed that Australians will have access to the world’s fastest 3G hotspot after the launch of the Telstra Ultimate Mobile Wi-Fi in what the telco describes as being able to deliver “blistering download speeds ranging from 1.1Mbps to 20Mbps”.

The National Broadband Network Co (NBN Co) has awarded a contract to Biarri, a commercial mathematics company, to supply network design optimisation software to support development of efficient, lower cost network construction plans.

Telstra have signed Definitive Agreements with the National Broadband Network Co (NBN Co)  and the Commonwealth for the telco’s participation in the rollout of the National Broadband Network (NBN).

The National Broadband Network Company (NBN Co) and SingTel Optus have signed off on a binding agreement to migrate Optus’ subscribers to the NBN system, a deal that Optus values at an estimated $800 million in post tax value.

The Australian Local Government Association (ALGA) and the National Broadband Network Co (NBN Co) have co-launched a guide designed to assist councils prepare for the rollout of the NBN throughout the country.

The New South Wales Government has announced plans to make the state “the nation’s leader in information communications and technology”, lifting its performance to compete with Victoria and Queensland, both of which have allocated substantial funding to create strong IT sectors.

The National Broadband Network Co (NBN Co) has denied allegations that it would pass on excessive cable-laying costs at the Kiama Downs First Release site to customers who don't sign up with an internet service provider (ISP) before the trial concludes, saying they will not charge part of the cost of laying cable to homes.