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Australia's Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil on Sunday said the government would consider making illegal the paying of ransoms to cyber hackers, following recent cyber attacks affecting millions of Australians. Australia's biggest health insurer, Medibank Private Ltd, last month suffered a massive cyber attack, as Australia grapples with a rise in hacks. Singapore Telecommunications-owned telecoms company Optus, Australia's second largest telco, along with at least eight other companies, have been breached since September. Asked on ABC television on Sunday whether the government planned to look at outlawing ransom payments to cyber criminals, O'Neil said "that's correct". "We will do that in the context of ... cyber strategy," she said. The comments come after O'Neil, on Saturday, formalised a new cyber-policing model between the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the Australian Signals Directorate - which intercepts electro...

Meta Platforms has begun the process to end access to news on Facebook and Instagram for all users in Canada, it said on Tuesday, in response to law requiring internet giants to pay news publishers . The Canadian government quickly denounced the move as "irresponsible," and said the world is watching the process play out in Canada. The Online News Act, passed by the Canadian parliament, would force platforms like Google parent Alphabet and Meta to negotiate commercial deals with Canadian news publishers for their content. "News outlets voluntarily share content on Facebook and Instagram to expand their audiences and help their bottom line," Rachel Curran, Meta's head of public policy in Canada, said. "In contrast, we know the people using our platforms don't come to us for news." Canadian Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge, who is in charge of the government's dealings with Meta, said in a Tuesday statement: "This is irrespon...

Telstra will more than double what it charges customers who choose not to pay their bills electronically. From May 20 the telco will bump, from $1 to $2.50, the fee imposed on customers who pay over the counter at Australia Post, in Telstra’s own stores or by cheque. The fee will apply to every payment and is on top of the $2.20 charge for those who receive their bill in the mail. Watch the latest News on Channel 7 or stream for free on 7plus >> Telstra, which was forced to scramble to correct major outages across the country earlier this week, defended the move, arguing it is not alone in charging customers this fee and said it had been in place for years. “The rate we charge our customers is still lower than what we get charged to accept these payments,” a spokesperson for Australia’s largest telecommunications company said, adding customers could avoid these fees by making the switch to electronic billing. Fee exemptions Another way to avoid the fee is via an exemption, whi...