Anna Clive

A joint report from Tech Council of Australia and Datacom released last week identified 3 Top Tech Trends for 2024: 1️⃣ Artificial Intelligence 2️⃣ Cyber 3️⃣ Quantum & Space 🔬 Methodology: This report summarises the findings from a survey fielded between December 2023 and January 2024 by the Tech Council of Australia with 46 responses. Respondents are leaders of Tech Council member companies and Digital Employment Forum members 🔍 Key Takeaways: 💠 More than two-thirds of tech leaders expect AI to be the defining technology trend for 2024 💠 1 in 6 surveyed tech leaders think deep-tech areas such as quantum and space can overtake AI as the defining trend of 2024 💠 More than 50% of tech leaders have an impact or Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategy in place. ❓ What are your thoughts on these trends? ❓ Which one do you think will have the biggest impact on your industry in 2024? #TechTrends #AI #Quantum #Cyber #Quantum

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Data Breaches Soar to 3.5 Year High - Are we surprised ?? The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) reports a significant increase in data breaches during the first half of 2024, reaching the highest level in 3.5 years. Malicious attacks and cyber security incidents are the main culprits. Both private and public sectors, notably Health and the Australian Government, are vulnerable. The OAIC emphasizes the need for improved privacy and security measures to safeguard personal information. https://bit.ly/47A5Mjg This is a race that probably wont stop - given the rate of technology change, and therefore a long game to ensure the "good guys" stay ahead of the game. On a personal basis, ensuring your identity is protected is more important than ever. Learn more about credit and identity monitoring plans by inquiring below! Business customer? Enquire now https://bit.ly/3BqcHPS Not a business? Visit our Personal site https://bit.ly/3zroJIq #DataBreach #Cybersecurity #Privacy #EquifaxProtect

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Qantas “new distribution model” The claim… “Additionally, for agents it opens up new revenue opportunities, makes it easier to sell ancillary products, streamlines the process for refunds and changes, and empowers them with the tools to create a more personalised experience for each traveller.” There is no evidence that this will happen. No credible examples. The empty promises were first made on 1AUG 2019 with the announcement of the Qantas Channel. “Agencies who have signed up to the Qantas Channel will, over time, be able to offer customers new content, sourced from the New Distribution Capability (NDC)-enabled Qantas Distribution Platform (QDP) Greater reward and recognition of our Frequent Flyers and the ability to deliver targeted offers for our Agency Partners are just some of the benefits that are in the pipeline.” The reality. Plenty of evidence. More surcharges and content chaos. More investment in direct sales eg Qantas Business Rewards. With a new side of “Premium- by invitation only” truffle fries for the elite few who earn their “Golden Ticket” #Qantas #Qantas Distribution Platform #MarketPower #OptinProgram #Fragmentation #Discrimination #NewDistributionCarnage

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“The promise of #NDC is to improve efficiency and foster a better relationship between airlines and TMCs. Instead, we’re witnessing a shift toward further fragmentation, where benefits are reserved for a select few.” Just another broken promise. This stuff has always been about the $$$. Never about the customer. Never about technology. “Pre internet technology”? Rubbish. It is another full frontal assault on the economics of airfare distribution. Market dominant airlines could not care less about fragmentation. In fact they encourage it. Comparison shopping? Discourage it. It’s naive to think otherwise. The “by invitation” category is yet another charade. Your Golden Ticket will be earned. By a process of elimination. EOI. Straight out of Animal Farm. “4 legs good, 2 legs bad.” Favouritism 101. The shortlist will already have been drawn up. Yet more fragmentation. “Together we can work towards a future that benefits everyone involved”. Really? Where was the consultation before this latest missile? There is not a snowflake in hell’s chance of collaboration happening. Regardless of the length of the “runway”. Zero. It’s just another #NewDistributionCluster

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As a buyers agent that's been engaged for 91 purchases in the last 18 months, this is what I'm seeing: - CoreLogic reports an increase in National Dwelling Values in April. This marks the 15th consecutive month of growth in the current cycle. - This growth has occurred despite 13 interest rate rises. - Property values are demonstrating resilience and reaching all-time highs. - I invest nationwide, focusing on areas with stronger supply and demand balances. - In my business, inquiries increase whenever the RBA pauses interest rate hikes. - More people attend open homes and there's heightened competition and confidence during rate pauses. - Despite owning a portfolio and dealing with high interest rates, I prefer the cash rate to remain stable. - A decrease in rates now could overheat an already heated market. - Many ask if now is a good time to invest; if you're financially and emotionally ready, it makes sense to invest now rather than wait. - Future rate decreases could lead to even more market chaos. If you're in the space - what are you seeing? #KevTran #PropertyInvestment #PassiveIncome #Australia #RealEstate #PassiveIncomeFromProperty #AustralianPropertyInvesting #AustralianPropertyMarketUpdate #InterestRateChanges #CashflowPositiveProperties #RealEstateInvestor #RealEstateInvesting #PropertyInvestment #InvestmentProperty #Investment #FinancialFreedom #FinancialIndependence #Wealth #RentalProperty #Property #AustraliaProperty #InvestingTips #PropertyPortfolio #WealthCreation

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Interesting to see how shopping habits are changing as Australian households manage tighter budgets.

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Reminder: ASIC IDR Reporting Deadline is Fast Approaching! STOP paying for IDR reporting software – 3Lines has got you covered, and the best part? It's FREE! With 3Lines, reporting your complaints data is simple. No coding. No data dictionary. Just one click, to download your CSV ready for ASIC reporting. Why pay when you can get it done for free with a 3Lines Starter Account? 🔗 Streamline your reporting process and avoid last-minute hassles. 📥 Sign up and get started today https://lnkd.in/gQvEBwJi #ASIC #IDRReporting #FinancialService #3Lines #SaaS #FreeSoftware #Compliance #FinTech #DeadlineReminder

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It’s not hard to phish-proof your comms. Why have I seen three cases of bank impersonation fraud this week? 📱 Criminal rings, impersonating the ANZ fraud department. The customer is told there’s fraudulent activity. 1️⃣2️⃣3️⃣4️⃣Codes then appear on their phone (via text) and the fake-fraud team even know the retailer and value. It’s incredibly plausible when they’ve named the transaction, then the text appears. The criminal has the online shopping pages open, ready to confirm payment with the stolen creditcard. They push “pay” at the right moment in the conversation with multiple transactions. 😵‍💫Then with a final flourish “we need to cancel your card, but can’t do that until we’ve cancelled each transaction. We need to input the visa-secure code into our system to reverse the purchase”. Again plausible to an ANZ customer. The message doesn’t contain an “effective warning” (a defined term in the UK). The customer isn’t told never to give a code to anyone, including staff. 💪🏻The Barclays customer is far better armed. The strength of messaging is in sharp contrast. ☎️ Note ANZ give out a phone number. The British Bank doesn’t. Why? Because phone numbers are just like links. A scammer can imitate the format of a message with a different phone number. If you train customers to call the number on your text messages, how can you blame them when they call the number sent by the fake fraud team. ✅The customer needs to look up the phone number themselves. Or, in the UK you can dial 159. That’s a number set up by the banks. It connects you safely to your bank and it can’t be spoofed. So far 400,000 customers have used it. 🛟 159 is the 111 of banking. Whats grossly unfair is banks have failed to phish-proof their 2FA, failed to place an effective warning and are using inferior security (text based codes). This was unauthorised fraud, but the customer gets held responsible. ANZ are currently offering 50% of the losses. Even worse, the Banking Ombudsman appears to agree this is acceptable and have a case study just like this awarding 50%. I’ve even seen a case where 25% repayment was accepted as the victim feared getting nothing. 💥 So your customer gets defrauded and ANZ play games with low ball offers - scammed for the second time, but by their own bank. We have to ban this type of conduct. These are victims of crime. Natasha McFlinn Kevin Green Kirsty Tones Jeremy Williams - CAMS, CGSS Ramon Reyes Jayden Howlett Jeff Napp Peter Plowman Ashley Kai Fong Joshua Begley ANZ Reserve Bank of New Zealand Bank of New Zealand ASB Bank Westpac New Zealand Kiwibank FMA Banking Ombudsman Scheme (NZ) Nicola Sladden Andrew Bayly Antonia Watson Dan Huggins Catherine McGrath Vittoria Shortt Steve Jurkovich Netsafe New Zealand Brent Carey CERT NZ Consumer NZ Jon Duffy Aneleise Gawn Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment Roger Beaumont #scam #fraudprevention

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While R&R is in a multi-year recession (3 years of declines off the 2020 boom) and big-ticket overall is doing worse, some big-ticket spending is doing far better. The demand for outdoor products is outperforming meaningfully – products like composite decking and siding. You can see this in the spectrum of 2024 sales outlooks by public companies. If these segments of outdoor can outperform in a stagnant environment, they should further outperform in a growing R&R environment. We believe these projects are a reflection of 1) homeowners staying in place and improving their place, 2) high home equity values to cushion the investment, 3) high return on investment, and 4) lower cost vs. kitchen and bath remodels. TRG-covered names like Trex and AZEK are clear beneficiaries, as is Louisiana Pacific (LPX). This note overviews outdoor trends vs. indoor trends and ROI for these projects. #trgbuildingideas https://lnkd.in/g6pj5wkF

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Did you know that 60% of targeted cyber-attacks in Australia hit SMBs but only 14% are prepared to defend themselves? Don’t assume your business is too small to be targeted. Implementing strong cyber security measures following the Australian recommended framework, the Essential 8, is important to protect what matters most. Our guide covers everything you need to know about the Essential 8. Check it out now and ensure your business has the right level of security 🔐 #FutureITServices #Essential8 #ASD #Cybersecurity #ITservices

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Medibank, Optus, Clubs NSW and the list goes on… All of these organisations have been compromised, which in the end amounted to peoples personal data being made available over the dark web. Whilst it is absolutely the responsibility for every organisation to implement the appropriate safeguards to secure their customers data - we also need to look at why it (the data) was there in the first place. One of the reasons is due to outdated regulatory, legal or compliance reasons which have been set by various bodies. For e.g. KYC requires that all organisations implement multiple forms of measures to properly identify their customers. These rules are further complicated by other requirements that are stacked on top that mandate for business to store this data for x number of years - this ensures that if a criminal activity or some other form of complaint occurred, that there is a way to trace it back to the individual Whilst these rules were designed to minimise criminal activity, they have also contributed to the increased distribution of our personal data being stored across the entire internet. This significantly increases the exposure of our data becoming compromised so it’s no wonder we continue to see this happening. Whilst the intention of these rules are valid, the rules need to urgently change and adapt to the technology that is available today. For e.g. the Government has begun creating digital identity platforms, where organisations can call to perform a KYC check but do not necessarily retain the underlying sensitive details. The act of checking can be recorded along with the purpose of the check, and a unique token can be given to the regulated firm, so that both they and the Government have a full audit trail. A system like this would ensure that individual’s details used to perform a KYC check are not stored across the internet, as they would only need to be held with the one Gov service. There are many solutions out there, and this was just one… Regardless of the solution, the rules need to change quickly - otherwise as it has been proven, it is a recipe for disaster. Victor Dominello you beat me to the post - but this is a great step in the right direction. The only thing I strong urge is for the bodies involved with the new digital ID program to seriously consider the involvement of CDR as it has an excellent framework for managing consent and consumer privacy. It would be negligible to not bring it into the fold. Also big thanks to Luke Raven for his input in this post! Forever grateful, and keeps spreading the knowledge - it is important that we make Australia a more secure place. #regulation #identity #australia #cdr #digitalid

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The biggest bank in Australia, CBA, have just conceded and finally joined the other Big Banks yesterday. What did they announce? No - it's 𝘯𝘰𝘵 a cashback campaign. 🎄 Before the CPI announcement, they were the only major Bank forecasting a rate cut in 2024. An early Christmas present to mortgage holders. 📊 We are not implying Grinch-like behavior, but they believed the data was just not enough to remain in the 2024 rate-cut camp. Commonwealth Bank now predicts the RBA’s first cut will be in February 2025, expecting a 25 basis point decrease. With a view of a cash rate of 3.35% by year’s end, adjusted from an earlier target of 3.10%. What we already know: 🔹 The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported a 0.2% rise in the consumer price index for the September quarter, with annual inflation now at 2.8% - squarely within the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) target range. But if it's finally within the band, then why are markets not anticipating a cut? 𝟭. Best measure is 𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗱 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: removing the big outliers in the inflation prints, being: ⛽ Fuel ⚡ Electricity When prices for certain goods swing significantly, using measures like the Trimmed Mean helps to smooth out the extremes and reveal underlying inflation trends. What is the trimmed mean figure? 3.5%, being higher than the RBA target band but slightly lower than last quarter. Services are also still increasing. 𝟮. 𝗝𝗼𝗯 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮: still too strong with experts like IFM Investors' Chief Economist, Alex Joiner saying that no cut is likely this year. 𝟯. 𝗕𝗼𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀: Following the announcement yesterday, the three-year government bond yield ticked up slightly, reflecting market scepticism for a 2024 rate cut. Current odds for a Christmas rate reduction are at just 23%, with a February cut now seeing a 42% likelihood. #inflation #CBA #RateCut #Data #Christmas #Investing #Lending #Rates Flint

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Ironically I’m finding genuine OTP messages are being reported back to me that the client thought it was fraud or a scam message, when we’re using our company name in the messaging and have talked to the client about what to expect… The lack of understanding by the public, and the mixed messaging on what is or is not an issue is also part of the problem here. We instigated OTP as an additional 2FA to help manage possible e-mail account compromise and the resulting experience from clients has been eye-opening. Thankfully, we are talking document-level transactions and not banking or money transactions, what I’ve seen would be horrifying to manage at a banking level. Part of the problem is all of “this” (finance, banking, technology) is seen by the general public as too hard for them to understand. That preconceived attitude people have coming into this is putting up barriers before people even get started on understanding things. It's not complicated, people need to: * slow down * stop and read messages * think about what they are doing. * And make sure the dots join up correctly. If they don't, then they need to ask more questions. As Einstein said, if you can't explain it simply you don't understand it well enough.

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I was up bright and early for this morning’s launch of the 2024 digital priorities report, which I and 30 other tech leaders contributed towards. Craig Young, CAE’s key takeaways from the report were: - Security: Tech leaders weren’t just concerned about the security of their organisations, but NZ as a whole. - AI: is now a dinner table discussion, and tech leaders are considering the wider implications of AI on their organisations and strategy. - Skills: there is a general concern about the flow of tech talent into our economy, with Simon Bridges noting that there hasn’t been a huge increase in tech enrolment numbers since 2013. There was also a great pannel discussion that was led by Nicky Preston, Liz Gosling, Simon Bridges, and Tony Baird. They took a deeper dive into the report. Some of my favorite takeaways: - “CIO’s are increasingly important for New Zealand’s future” (Simon) - “Rapid change is the new norm” and there needs to be more work done on promoting diversity in tech (Liz) - There’s a greater need for more NZ based Private Equity investment into our Tech companies so we can help them scale successfully (Tony) Tony’s comment resonated with me especially, and mirrors my own comments in the Digital priorities report, and an RNZ article from this morning - https://lnkd.in/gVn_cuyi Thanks TUANZ for being such a huge voice for the industry and capturing all our feedback. It’s greatly appreciated. Read a copy of the digital priorities report here - https://lnkd.in/gcjnFfMb

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🎉 Happy World Micro & SME Businesses Day! I'm a huge supporter of Australian SMEs – they play a critical role in our economy and have potential for enormous impact when they work together. ➡ Account for more than 98% of all businesses ➡ Employ around 70% of the workforce ➡ Generate $500 billion of economic activity ➡ Constitute one-third of Australia’s GDP If that doesn't deserve to be celebrated, I don't know what does 🥂 #SupportLocal #SupportSMEs #entrepreneurship

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With a couple of screenshots of VoltaRocks comparing other retailers, scoring $20AUD/m savings from the lowest listed AGL plan, we are rolling out this fully automated in June. Of course, my message is plagued by my usual misspellings. #savings #negotiator #planhustler #voltarocks!

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A security breach could shatter customer trust and your bottom line. Is your organisation truly secure? ADAPT's report reveals 5 key strategies Australian CISOs should be prioritising to fortify their data ecosystems and build resilience. Download the free report to gain actionable insights on aligning your security initiatives with your business goals. [Link to access report in the comments] #CyberSecurity #DataSecurity #Security Pooja Singh Aarjun Sampath Kumar

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National Vendor Discounting Hits 2-Year Low at 3.5% 📉 The median vendor discount across Australia has fallen to 3.5% in the April quarter, according to CoreLogic – the lowest level in two years! This slight drop from 3.6% in the March quarter suggests a strengthening market 🏡. In regional areas, the discounting fell from 3.9% to 3.8%, while capital cities saw a slight increase from 3.1% to 3.2%. Here's a snapshot of vendor discounting in key cities: Perth: 2.4% Brisbane: 2.9% Canberra: 3.0% Melbourne & Sydney: 3.3% Adelaide: 3.5% Hobart: 4.2% Darwin: 4.8% For homeowners and investors, these figures provide a crucial insight into market trends and property values. 🌟 #RealEstate #PropertyMarket #VendorDiscounting #Australia

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