CCBR Business Review

19 B U S I N E S S T I P S the difference when you are busily check- ing your email? But, it’s not just for email, what about websites? At a glance would you see the difference between www.loy- alit.com.au and www.loyalit.au? These are the real threats we will see emerge from the new top-level domain name becom- ing available. The Australian Cyber Security Centre warns that opportunistic cybercriminals could register your .au domain name in an attempt to impersonate your business. All Australian businesses will have until September 20, 2022 to exclusively reserve their .au equivalent domain name, then it becomes available to the general public. What this means is if you own mycompany. com.au, you can register mycompany.au until September 20. After that date, all bets are off and anyone in the world will be able to register any .au domain, including your company’s domain name if you haven’t already. You bet there’s talk about this on the dark web, so you need to prepare your- self and your business. You would have gathered from my cyber security advice over the past twelve months, that hackers follow a hacking framework. The first step of this framework is ‘recon- naissance’, which is ‘get to know your target’. This involves Googling any publicly available information about your business. If you have your team and positions listed on your website, the hackers know all they need to perform a spear phishing attack. If you have not registered your .au address and they see John Smith works in accounts, the hacker can register the .au domain and send an email from John Smith in accounts .au address to a target. If the target isn’t looking closely enough at the email address, they could be tricked into doing the hackers bid- ding such as transferring a large amount of money into a bank account the hacker nom- inates. This isn’t a hypothetical situation, it is an attack that has been in use for years, and we will see an increase in its use as soon as the .au domains become publicly available. Be prepared. Make sure you acquire your .au domain today. .au domains – new opportunity but also a new threat that will impact your business AFTER MARCH 24, 2022, any business (or association or individual) with a connec- tion to Australia will be able to register a new top-level domain name, meaning for the first time ever, you can have a domain name that excludes the .com and simply end in .au. Never before have you been able to buy a top-level domain name sim- ply ending in .au. For example, Loyal I.T.’s domain name is currently loyalit.com.au , we can now pur- chase loyalit.au . But beware, what if some- one else were to purchase loyalit.au and masquerade as loyalit.com.au? Will you see By Michael Trimblett Certified Ethical Hacker General Manager, Loyal I.T. Solutions David Evers and Troy Marchant – AdviceCo Making our clients wealthy ing their intentions to build the campus in Gosford the university said they needed $18 million from both Federal and State Governments plus student places and the Mitre10 site. Member for Robertson, Lucy Wicks, to her absolute credit, had the $18 million included in the 2019 Budget plus student places. One the other hand the NSW Government has had to be dragged kicking and screaming to announce the Mitre10 site and ignored the funds. While they continue to announce hundred of millions of dollars almost every week for projects of every descrip- For business, is there any alternative to a Morrison Federal Government? Feds cutting red tape for business and then matched by AdviceCo. They include: Central Coast Kids in Need, Camp Breakaway, CoastLink and Coast Shelter. In 2020-21 David initiated the AdviceCo Community Grants Programme, with a commitment to give a corporate donation of $20,000 annually to a Central Coast char- ity. All staff members are encouraged to volunteer in the community. AdviceCo is a major sponsor of the Gosford Erina Business Chamber of which David is Treasurer and the Bay2Bay Running Festival of which Debbie Bloffwitch is an integral member. The future Finally, David says, “Our number one focus is to make sure our clients and team achieve their goals, while at the same time making the Central Coast a better place to do busi- ness, including giving back to the commu- nity. If that happens, then we are making a difference.” Troy agrees, “It’s all about developing and growing our talented team, when I see the team step-up and give a client a great result or some great advice, I know we are doing a good job. I know that our team genuinely cares about our clients.” CO N T I N U E D A R T I C L E S CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 18 “microeconomic reform through national consistency and removing duplica- tion” but fails to realise the Morrison Government has already achieved this through National Cabinet last year. By listening to what Australians and businesses have to say, and freeing them from the burdens of cumulative, duplicative and unnecessary regulation, tion for Western Sydney they continue to prevaricate on a lousy $18 million for the Central Coast. If Mr Crouch, Mr Stokes and the Premier have some idea that they can drag this out until the end of the year so that it becomes an election announcement it will show their utter contempt for the Central Coast. Edgar Adams Editor the Morrison Government is enabling industries to grow and create jobs. I’m proud of all we’ve achieved as part of the Deregulation Agenda, as well as the foundations we’ve built to support consistent reform in years to come. We will continue to find the best and most efficient ways to make Australians’ lives easier. CENTRAL COAST BUSINESS REVIEW MAY 2022