03/07/2025

THURSDAY | JULY 3, 2025

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Hacker breaks into Qantas database SYDNEY: A cyber hacker broke into a database containing the personal information of millions of customers, Qantas said, in Australia’s biggest breach in years. o ‘No impact on safety’ acted immediately to contain it. “We are continuing to investigate the proportion of the data that has been stolen, though we expect it will be significant,” Qantas said, reporting no impact on operations or safety. Scattered Spider hackers are known to impersonate a company’s tech staff to gain employee passwords and “it is plausible they are executing a similar playbook”, Thomas said. Charles Carmakal, chief technology officer of Alphabet-owned cybersecurity firm compliance and incidents. Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson said: “We recognise the uncertainty this will cause. “Our customers trust us with their personal information and we take that responsibility seriously.”

Qantas said it notified the Australian Cyber Security Centre, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner and the Australian Federal Police. The Cyber Security Centre declined to comment and police said only that they were aware of the incident. The Information Commissioner was not immediately available for comment. The airline said the hacker did not access frequent flyer accounts or customer passwords, PIN numbers or log in details. – Reuters

Mandiant, said it was too soon to say if Scattered Spider was responsible but “global airline organisations should be on high alert of social engineering attacks”. Qantas’ share price was down 2.4% in afternoon trading against an overall market that was up 0.8%. The breach is Australia’s most high-profile since those of telecommunications network operator Optus and health insurance leader Medibank in 2022 prompted cyber resilience laws including mandatory reporting of

Last week, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said cybercrime group Scattered Spider was targeting airlines and that Hawaiian Airlines and Canada’s WestJet had already reported breaches. Qantas did not name any group. “What makes this trend particularly alarming is its scale and coordination, with fresh reports that Qantas is the latest victim” of a hack, said Mark Thomas, Australia director of security services for cyber security firm Arctic Wolf.

The hacker targeted a call centre and gained access to a third-party customer service platform containing six million names, email addresses, phone numbers, birth dates and frequent flyer numbers, Qantas said in a statement yesterday. The airline did not specify the location of the call centre or customers whose information was compromised. It said it learnt of the breach after detecting unusual activity on the platform and Operating expenses shuts Bruce Lee Club HONG KONG: Bruce Lee aficionados gathered at a mini-museum dedicated to the legendary martial artist to bid farewell to the site on Tuesday, as operating expenses forced the itinerant archive to close once again. The Bruce Lee Club, which was founded by the Lee family, had put a collection of about 2,000 artefacts, including decades-old magazines and a large sculpture showing the superstar’s iconic moves, on display in the bustling Yau Ma Tei neighbourhood in 2001. But a rent increase shut the project in 2016. Three years and a move to industrial Kwun Tong later, the club began welcoming visitors to see the collection again just before democracy protests roiled the city, dampening tourism. In a statement, the club wrote that the social movement followed by the public health scare had “severely disrupted” plans for the archive. “We anticipated a recovery, yet reality fell short. The accumulated expenses over these six years have compelled us to rethink how to most effectively use our resources to sustain the flame of Lee’s spirit,” it said. It said that it will “explore new ways” to engage with the public, but for now, ahead of what would have been Lee’s 85th birthday, it is shutting shop. At least temporarily, all the assorted ephemera related to the Hong Kong icon will be boxed up and stored. Born in San Francisco in 1940, Lee was raised in Hong Kong and had an early brush with fame as a child actor. He later became one of the first Asian men to achieve Hollywood stardom before his death at the age of 32. At the unassuming Kwun Tong archive on Tuesday, visitor and martial arts coach Andy Tong called it a “great pity” to lose the place. “(Lee) helped build the image of the Chinese and overseas Chinese in the Western world,” Tong, 46, said.

Partial verdict reached in Diddy trial

NEW YORK: Jurors in the trial of music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs head back into deliberations yesterday, aiming to reach a unanimous decision on the case’s most serious charge of leading a criminal organisation. The jury of eight men and four women have already come to agreement on four of the five charges – those that pertain to sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution – but told the court on Tuesday there were “unpersuadable opinions on both sides” concerning the first count of racketeering. That charge paints Combs as the boss of a decades-long criminal group who directed loyal employees and bodyguards to commit myriad offenses at his behest. The alleged crimes include forced labour, drug distribution, kidnapping, bribery, witness tampering and obstruction, arson, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. To find Combs guilty of racketeering, jurors would need to find the existence of a criminal enterprise and that the organisation committed at least two of the offences. Days ahead of the July Fourth holiday weekend jurors announced the partial verdict – but Judge Arun Subramanian instructed them to keep working to complete it. He reiterated instructions that they had a duty to carefully consider the case as a team. Only jury members know the verdicts they’ve reached on counts two, three, four and five. Combs, once one of the most powerful figures in the music industry, denies all charges. Jurors began deliberating on Monday after the judge read them nearly three hours of instructions on how to apply the mountain of evidence and testimony in the case to the law. Up until Tuesday afternoon, all the jury notes concerned legal questions, and a request for portions of testimony. The note announcing a partial verdict brought new tension to the courtroom. Legal teams scrutinised it before it was read aloud. The defence team was seen huddling around a visibly anxious Combs. He alternated between hanging his head, staring straight ahead and rubbing his temples with his hand shielding his eyes. That jurors have reached a verdict on four of the five accounts is “remarkably efficient”, as defence lawyer Marc Agnifilo put it in court after the note was read aloud. The seven-week trial included disturbing testimony along with thousands of pages of phone, financial and audiovisual records. Combs is charged with sex trafficking two women: singer Casandra Ventura and a woman who testified under the pseudonym Jane. – AFP

Club member Michael Wong tidies up before bidding farewell to the club. – AFPPIC

education and are far more likely to be imprisoned or die in police custody. “Current economic disparities and barriers to First Peoples’ prosperity are direct legacies of colonial practices and state-sanctioned exclusion,” the inquiry said. Victoria Premier Jacinta Allan thanked the commission and said her government would “carefully consider” its recommendations. The findings“shine a light on hard truths and lay the foundations for a better future for all Victorians”, she said in a statement. Australians soundly rejected an October 2023 referendum to give greater constitutional recognition to indigenous Australians. – AFP Hong Kong government lacks long-term and continuous planning for preserving Lee’s legacy. But he added the club “will never give up” their dedication to championing Lee’s spirit. “Although Bruce has passed away, his spirit continues to inspire people of all kinds,” said Lee’s 76-year-old brother Robert Lee. “I believe, rather than hope, the spirit of Bruce Lee will forever remain here (in Hong Kong).” – AFP

Among 100 recommendations, the Yoorrook Justice Commission sought redress for damage and loss, citing “genocide, crimes against humanity and denial of freedoms”. It urged monetary compensation and the restitution of traditional lands, waters and natural resources. The arrival of 11 British ships to set up a penal colony in Sydney Cove in 1788 heralded the long oppression of indigenous peoples, whose ancestors have lived on the continent for more than 60,000 years. Making up less than 4% of the population, indigenous peoples still have lives about eight years shorter than other Australians, poorer While the superstar is widely beloved and celebrated in the city, with frequent retrospectives and exhibitions staged, fans have struggled to ensure organised and systematic preservation. In 2004, petitioners successfully managed to get a bronze statue of Lee installed on Hong Kong’s famed harbour front, but a campaign to revitalise his former residence failed to spare it from demolition in 2019. Bruce Lee Club’s chairman W Wong said the

Victoria genocide report calls for redress SYDNEY: European settlers committed genocide against Australia’s indigenous people, a truth-telling inquiry in the state of Victoria has found, calling for government redress including financial compensation.

In a final report, Victoria’s four-year royal commission said indigenous people suffered massacres, the forced removal of children from their families and the suppression of culture. The findings, presented to parliament on Tuesday, said mass killings, disease, sexual violence, child removal, and assimilation had led to the “near-complete destruction” of indigenous people in the state. “This was genocide,” the report said.