From Australia’s sticky inflation to increasing spam rate, we bring you a collation of key updates for April 2023.
Aussie law firms lack confidence in cyber security, says report
From July to December 2021, legal service firms were one of the top three industries in Australia to report data breaches.
The 2023 State of Cyber Maturity for Australian Law Firms’ recent report states that most law firms lack confidence in their firm’s ability to protect from security breaches.
The report found that only 48 per cent of Australian legal firms are confident in their ability to detect and respond to threats. However, the remaining 51 per cent confessed that they need more confidence that their firm can detect and respond to potential attacks appropriately.
Australia’s inflation rate likely to be sticky
Following the release of ABS data, investment firm JP Morgan published a note showing inflation had fallen to 7 per cent in the March quarter, down from 7.8 per cent in December.
Chief economist, Ben Jarman, hinted at the unlikeliness of the Reserve Bank hitting the inflation target of 2 and 3 per cent. Jarman commented on the inflation: “Yesterday’s CPI details — particularly, the handover from goods to services inflation — suggest some degree of stickiness which means the return to target is not yet guaranteed.”
Economists are expecting inflation to fall back within the target range by mid-2025.
Debra Mortimer becomes Australia’s first female Federal Court chief justice
Melbourne-based Debra Mortimer, a Federal Court justice since 2013, has been appointed Chief Justice of the Federal Court.
Justice Mortimer becomes the first female Chief Justice of the Federal Court. She will be succeeding the position after mandatory retirement of Chief Justice James Allsop.
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus announced Justice Mortimer’s appointment, stating, “Justice Mortimer is widely recognised for her legal acumen, intellectual capacity and judicial leadership. The government is grateful to all members of the legal profession who provided nominations and assisted with its consideration of candidates for this very important role.”
‘World’s most advanced’ AI robot speaks several languages in creepy video
Soon after the launch of open AI ChatGPT, the technology is gaining momentum with a humanoid bot launch. Developed by UK startup Engineered Arts, Ameca is a humanoid robot created using the same technology as ChatGPT.
Ameca possesses super linguistic skills that could render human translators obsolete. Additionally, Ameca has various facial expressions and can create lifelike faces entailing everything from winking to pursing her lips.
When a researcher asked the robot if it’s true that she “can speak a lot of different languages.” Ameca pauses to “think” before replying in a British accent: “Yes, that is true. I can speak many languages, including German, English, French, Japanese, Chinese and much more.”
Aussies lose a record $3.1 billion to scams, with the most vulnerable among the most brutal hit
Based on the data reported to the ACCC’s Scamwatch, ReportCyber, the Australian Financial Crimes Exchange (AFCX), IDCARE and other government agencies, Australians lost about $3.1 billion to scammers last year. This is an 80% increase in the scam rate of 2021.
Accounting for the total scam, investment scams led the rest with combined losses of $1.5 billion, followed by remote access scams of $229 million and payment redirection scams with $224 million lost, the Targeting Scams report found.
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