The very rapid adoption of cloud is exposing organisations to increased risks as they generally exercise an overabundance of trust and a scarcity of caution.

Read this very informative paper by TrustedImpact and AISA on how you can better manage your information that is held by your cloud provider.

Keep reading

"The COVID virus has been a case of biology confronting and really shaking the complacency of day-to-day politics with a physical reality of sickness and death on a scale we haven't seen for a very long time," Turnbull told the Policy Exchange audience. "And so the question really is: why do so many people in government and so many people in politics - particularly in the Anglo sphere - not take the scientific evidence on climate change just as seriously?

And below a link to The Age article covering the interview.

As Australia was swept by panic buying and medical shortages this year, the scenes were eerily familiar for one of the country's most senior military planners.

In a secret meeting only a year earlier, the Defence Department's director of preparedness Cheryl Durrant and a group of Australian industry leaders had predicted a strikingly similar scenario.

"We predicted the unpredictable," says Ms Durrant, who left the department in January.

Singapore — Saudi Arabia's decision to cut its crude oil prices sharply over the weekend has added pressure on other Middle East producers to follow suit or risk losing market share, setting the stage for a price war in the region, market participants said Monday.

Saudi Arabia, over the weekend, announced deep cuts in the price of its oil for customers globally after falling out with Russia on further production cuts to support prices. The price cuts were deepest for Europe -- a move that's widely seen as a direct challenge to Russia -- one of the region's biggest oil supplier.

Continue reading

In October 2019, Dr. Janet Woodcock, the director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, testified before Congress that the United States “has become a world leader in drug discovery and development, but is no longer in the forefront of drug manufacturing.” 72% of API manufacturing takes place outside the U.S., and the use of foreign-sourced materials “creates vulnerabilities in the U.S. supply chain,” Woodcock concluded.

The ripple effect coming from one region in China is completely unprecedented,” Kamal said. “We’ve never seen anything like this.

The novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV continues to spread throughout China and other countries, seriously impacting business operations around the world. As governments and companies act to protect their citizens, operations and employees at home and abroad, these actions threaten to produce business interruptions, travel risks and other effects that could be detrimental to business continuity.

Here are three approaches to limit risk from the coronavirus:

• Take Travel Precautions
• Develop a Response Plan
• Consult Reputable Information Sources

Outbreaks of novel virus infections among people are always of public health concern. The risk from these outbreaks depends on characteristics of the virus, including whether and how well it spreads between people, the severity of resulting illness, and the medical or other measures available to control the impact of the virus (for example, vaccine or treatment medications).

This is a very serious public health threat. The fact that this virus has caused severe illness and sustained person-to-person spread in China is concerning, but it’s unclear how the situation in the United States will unfold at this time. The risk to individuals is dependent on exposure. At this time, some people will have an increased risk of infection, for example healthcare workers caring for 2019-nCoV patients and other close contacts. For the general American public, who are unlikely to be exposed to this virus, the immediate health risk from 2019-nCoV is considered low. The goal of the ongoing U.S. public health response is to prevent sustained spread of 2019-nCov in this country.

The Wuhan coronavirus has sickened more than 14,500 people in Asia, according to statements from health officials. Many other cases are suspected but not confirmed. As of Sunday afternoon, at least 305 people have died, all but one in China.

Australia will deny entry to all travellers from mainland China unless they’re Australian citizens, amid growing fear surrounding the deadly coronavirus, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced. While citizens, permanent residents and their immediate family, legal guardians and spouses will be excepted from the strict measures, Mr Morrison said anyone arriving from China will be required to self-isolate, as part of the stricter border approach.

An informative article that provides a recent history of the development of the virus