Australia's No. 2 telco Optus, government clash over massive data breach - CNA

SYDNEY: Australia's No. 2 telecoms firm Optus, hit by a massive data breach, on Tuesday (Sep 27) said its cyber defences were strong, contradicting the government's analysis as reports emerged that hackers had released data for tens of thousands of customers.

The Australian federal government has blamed Optus for the breach, flagged an overhaul of privacy rules and more fines, and suggested the company had "effectively left the window open" for hackers to steal data.

Optus Chief Executive Kelly Bayer Rosmarin said there was lot of "misinformation out there".

"Given we're not allowed to say much because the police have asked us not to, what I can say ... is that our data was encrypted and we had multiple players of protection," Rosmarin told ABC Radio.

"So it is not the case of having some sort of completely exposed API (application programming interface) sitting out there," Rosmarin added. An API allows two or more computer programs to communicate with each other.

Rosmarin said Optus had briefed authorities after the government's initial review of the incident. She said most customers understand that "we are not the villains" and that the company had not done anything deliberate to put data at risk.

Singapore Telecoms-owned Optus revealed last week that home addresses, drivers' licenses and passport numbers of up to 10 million customers had been compromised in one of Australia's biggest data breaches.

Australian media reported that hackers released the information of about 10,000 customers in an online forum and threatened to release more unless Optus paid $1 million in cryptocurrency.

Rosmarin said "the Australian Federal Police (AFP) is all over that".

The AFP said it has been working closely with overseas law enforcement agencies to find the perpetrators.

Australia's Council Of Financial Regulators, which includes the central bank, on Tuesday said its members have been working together in response to the cyber attack.

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2022-09-27 01:38:00Z
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'A new era': NASA strikes asteroid in key test of planetary defence - CNA

ASTRONOMY COMMUNITY ABUZZ

Minutes after impact, a toaster-sized satellite called LICIACube, which already separated from DART a few weeks ago, was expected to make a close pass of the site to capture images of the collision and the ejecta - the pulverised rock thrown off by the strike.

LICIACube's pictures will be sent back in the next weeks and months.

Also watching the event: an array of telescopes, both on Earth and in space - including the recently operational James Webb - which might be able to see a brightening cloud of dust.

The mission has set the global astronomy community abuzz, with more than three dozen ground telescopes participating, including optical, radio and radar.

"There's a lot of them, and it's incredibly exciting to have lost count," said DART mission planetary astronomer Christina Thomas.

Finally, a full picture of what the system looks like will be revealed when a European Space Agency mission four years down the line called Hera arrives to survey Dimorphos' surface and measure its mass, which scientists can currently only guess at.

"EARTHLINGS CAN SLEEP BETTER"

Very few of the billions of asteroids and comets in our solar system are considered potentially hazardous to our planet, and none are expected in the next hundred years or so.

But wait long enough, and it will happen.

We know that from the geological record - for example, the roughly 10km wide Chicxulub asteroid struck Earth 66 million years ago, plunging the world into a long winter that led to the mass extinction of the dinosaurs along with 75 per cent of all species.

An asteroid the size of Dimorphos, by contrast, would only cause a regional impact, such as devastating a city, albeit with greater force than any nuclear bomb in history.

How much momentum DART imparts on Dimorphos will depend on whether the asteroid is solid rock, or more like a "rubbish pile" of boulders bound by mutual gravity - a property that's not yet known.

But its success marks the first step towards a world capable of defending itself from a future existential threat.

"I think Earthlings can sleep better, definitely I will," said DART mission systems engineer Elena Adams.

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2022-09-26 23:26:00Z
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Understanding the British pound's sudden crash - CNA

WHAT'S THE GOVERNMENT'S PLAN? 

The aim is that the tax cuts will create a more dynamic economy, which should eventually generate higher tax revenue and keep borrowing in check.

The new Conservative government's plans have drawn comparisons, even among its supporters, with the ill-fated 1972 budget drawn up by Kwarteng’s Tory predecessor Anthony Barber, who also delivered a massive package of unfunded tax cuts. In his case, inflation soared and the economy overheated before collapsing into recession. Barber’s boss, Edward Heath, was defeated by the Labour opposition two years later, and the UK had to seek a bailout from the International Monetary Fund in 1976.

There are also parallels with policies followed in the 1980s by another of Kwarteng’s predecessors, Nigel Lawson, under then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. 

WHERE DOES THIS LEAVE THE UK'S PROSPECTS?  

An export powerhouse like Japan is better able to manage a bout of currency weakness thanks to its huge current-account surplus.

The UK is in a similar position to some emerging markets, with one of the largest current-account deficits in the world and an already sizable budget deficit - set to get larger after Kwarteng’s announcement. Inward investment into UK property and other assets tend to prop up the pound in normal years.

But with growth weak and the economy increasingly volatile, there are mounting reasons not to invest in the UK. Lawmakers from Truss’s party have said the Bank of England may need to step in with an emergency rate rise to calm market nerves. 

WHY DOES IT MATTER?

Truss' Conservative Party, which has held power under four prime ministers since 2010, will face a general election by January 2025 at the latest. That gives her little more than two years to convince voters that her policies will work and the country’s cost-of-living crisis will abate.

While she retains a comfortable majority in the House of Commons for now, the party is trailing the opposition Labour Party in opinion polls. A continued decline in the pound would pile further pressure on the government.

Option-market pricing in late September suggested a real chance that the currency will hit parity with the dollar before the end of 2022. 

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2022-09-26 13:51:18Z
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Wall Street Banks Reassess China Over Taiwan After Russia Losses - Bloomberg

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1. Wall Street Banks Reassess China Over Taiwan After Russia Losses  Bloomberg
2. Wall Street Banks Prep For Grim China Scenarios Over Taiwan  NDTV Profit
3. View Full coverage on Google News

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2022-09-26 09:37:56Z
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In China, homebuyers occupy their 'rotting', unfinished properties - CNA

But in June 2020, Jiadengbao Real Estate hit the headlines after a court accused its parent company of illegal fund-raising and seized 340 million yuan worth of its properties, including a number of flats in Xiulan County Mansion.

Construction stopped in mid-2020, which Xu found out months later, describing her feelings at the time as "crashing from paradise".

Jiadengbao Real Estate did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters.

Since the debt crisis erupted in 2021, thousands more home buyers have been caught in similar predicaments as cash-strapped developers went into bankruptcy or abandoned struggling projects.

FENCING AND UNDERGROWTH

On a recent day, the main block of buildings at Xiulan County Mansion was surrounded by a tall blue fence while the clubhouse, touted in promotional materials, was covered in dense undergrowth. Cement mixers, iron poles, and piles of debris lay strewn around.

Xu, who is unemployed, said she bought the apartment for her only son, with the hope that he would be able to raise a family there. She said her son and her husband, who live far away in the northern province of Hebei, blame her for their financial predicament and no longer speak to her.

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2022-09-26 05:51:35Z
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Pound plunges to all-time low as UK economic plan spurs investor exodus - The Straits Times

TOKYO - The British pound tumbled to a record low on Monday, prompting speculation of an emergency response from the Bank of England (BOE), as confidence evaporated in Britain’s plan to borrow its way out of trouble, with spooked investors piling into US dollars.

The pound dived as much as 4.9 per cent to an all-time nadir of US$1.0327 before stabilising at around US$1.05405, 2.9 per cent below the previous session’s close.

It dropped 3.6 per cent on Friday, when new finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng unveiled historic tax cuts funded by the biggest increase in borrowing since 1972.

Against the Singapore dollar, the pound sank 2.89 per cent to $1.5079 as at 11.55am, and is now down about 17 per cent this year.

“Sterling is getting absolutely hammered,” said Mr Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone.

“Investors are searching out a response from the Bank of England. They are saying this is not sustainable, when you have got deteriorating growth and a twin deficit.”

The pound’s searing drop helped boost the safe-haven US dollar to a new two-decade peak against a basket of major peers. The dollar index - whose basket includes sterling, the euro and the yen - reached 114.58 for the first time since May 2002 before easing to 113.73, 0.52 per cent higher than the end of last week.

The euro also touched a fresh 20-year trough to the dollar on simmering recession fears, as an energy crisis extends towards winter amid an escalation in the Russia-Ukraine war. A weekend election in Italy was also set to propel a right-wing alliance to a clear majority in Parliament.

The dollar built on its recovery against the yen following the shock of last week’s currency intervention by the Japanese authorities, as investors returned their focus to the contrast between a hawkish United States Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan’s insistence on sticking to massive stimulus.

Mr Kwarteng scrapped the top level of income tax and cut the basic rate by a percentage point, while also reversing a rise in the National Insurance payroll tax brought in earlier this year. On Sunday, he appeared unperturbed by the ferocious response that sent British assets tumbling, telling BBC television that he would not comment on market movements, but when it comes to tax cuts, "there is more to come".

"We have only been here 19 days," Mr Kwarteng said. "I want to see, over the next year, people retain more of their income, because I believe that it is the British people that are going to drive this economy."

On Friday, yields on British government bonds soared, by a record amount on some maturities, as investors punished the minister for his unapologetic dash for growth.

If maintained, the move in yields will dramatically inflate the cost of the extra £400 billion (S$616 billion) of borrowing that the Resolution Foundation think-tank estimates is needed over the next five years to fund the plan, adding to an interest bill already bulging thanks to sky-high inflation and BOE rate increases.

"With broad unfunded spending on the fiscal side unmatched by monetary policy to offset the inflationary impulse, the currency is likely to weaken further," Goldman Sachs analysts wrote in a note to clients on Friday.

The market moves this week could have huge implications. The opposition Labour Party - already enjoying a comfortable lead in the polls - is seeking to capitalise on the policy gulf that has opened up with the Tories at its annual conference, which began in Liverpool on Sunday. Leader Keir Starmer on Sunday told the BBC he would reverse Mr Kwarteng's most eye-catching measure - the scrapping of the top 45 per cent rate of income tax levied on earnings over £150,000.

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2022-09-26 00:17:14Z
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Live news updates: China sets out measures to prop up renminbi - Financial Times

On Monday we will be picking over the fallout from Italy’s lurch to the right after the completion of a bad-tempered election campaign. The Financial Times got in early with a Big Read on what a far right administration means for the rest of Europe.

We also have elections in Latvia, Bulgaria, Kuwait and Bosnia and Herzegovina this week. But the big one will be on Sunday with the first round of the Brazilian presidential election. The race frontrunner is left-wing former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, but incumbent Jair Bolsonaro is far from out of the race. Tensions are running high.

A smaller but nonetheless significant ballot takes place on Thursday, when the alderman of the City of London will decide the next lord mayor. This largely ceremonial role will be key to promoting the UK’s financial centre, so it’s important. Hopefully the ballot will not prove as contentious as last year’s.

Aside from elections, it is a strong week for space travel. On Monday, Nasa will be crashing a spacecraft into an asteroid at 23,000kph in order to divert its path. The $300mn Dart mission, short for Double Asteroid Redirection Test, has picked as its target an asteroid called Dimorphos because it orbits another asteroid rather than the sun.

The US space agency will be busy again the next day with the launch of Artemis I, the first in a series of increasingly complex missions to establish a permanent human base on the moon.

If that were not uplifting enough the week will end with the return of the London Marathon, albeit six months later than its usual April slot to enable it to take place at all after the disruption the pandemic brought.

Companies

Continuing the theme of play, Lego (the name is derived from the Danish phrase leg godt, or “play well”) reports half-yearly results on Wednesday. The toymaker has guided analysts to expect a normalising of sales after its pandemic boom but expectations are high that sales will continue to outpace rivals in the sector.

For petrol heads, Thursday is an exciting day because shares in Porsche will begin trading on the Frankfurt stock exchange after the long-awaited flotation of the luxury car brand.

It is a more sombre week for lovers of the silver screen. Ailing movie house chain Cineworld will report its half-year results on Friday. Although the group is expected to post a profit, contrasting with last year’s loss, focus will turn to its latest cash position and net debt level after the company filed for bankruptcy protection in the US earlier this month.

Economic data

This will be a week of finding out how economies are performing and how the public expect them to perform with gross domestic product figures from the US, Canada and the UK as well as several consumer confidence surveys.

We will also get further insights into the battle in Europe to calm inflation with the release of consumer price index and producer price index readings from Germany, France and Italy.

Read the full week ahead calendar here.

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2022-09-26 07:40:40Z
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