Tag Archives: ross bark

7 News – AI Deepfake Image Incident – Sydney School

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A Year 12 student at a southwest Sydney high school has been accused of creating deepfake pornographic images of female classmates and posting them online.

The male student, allegedly used innocent photos sourced from social media and school events to make pornographic fake profiles on social media.

The NSW Department of Education sent an email to parents, informing them that their daughters had been victims of the AI deepfake scandal.

The department assured parents that their daughters had not engaged in any inappropriate behaviour but were victims of the situation, as the deepfakes and profiles were created using AI.

7 News – Healthcare Company MediSecure Targeted in Cyber Attack

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E-script provider MediSecure has fallen victim to a large scale data breach, potentially putting Australians’ private medical information at risk. Ross Bark spoke to 7 News to discuss.

MediSecure, which has been operating since 2009, specialises in providing electronic prescriptions to health professionals.

It comes nearly two years after Australia’s largest health insurer Medibank suffered a data breach in which nearly 10 million customers had personal information, including names, dates of birth, addresses and phone numbers, compromised.

Australian children’s personal information is being sold online after being stolen from gaming sites

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The Daily Telegraph

POPULAR video games such as Fortnite and Minecraft are being used to harvest children’s personal data by web fiends who flog it to anyone willing to stump up the cash.

Cyber-safety expert Ross Bark said crooks could use a child’s username and password for a gaming site like Fortnite to extract more information including phone numbers, credit card details, dates of birth and home addresses.

“Websites like Fortnite ask users to hand over a lot of personal information, which is very valuable to criminals,” Mr Bark said. “The account details would usually be purchased in bulk by the hundreds.”

Read the full article in The Daily Telegraph here

Tips for parents to ensure their young children’s safety online.

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The TODAY Show – Channel 9

Here’s a frightening number for you – 72 million pieces of data on average are being collected from a child before they turn 13. What can parents do to keep their children’s private information safe?

Watch Ross Bark’s interview on The TODAY Show to see how we all need to be careful about the information we share online.

Cyber-trolls and online bullies: Call for bans amid spate of teenage suicides

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The Daily Telegraph

CYBER-BULLIES would be banned from social media and slapped with an online­ version of an apprehended violence­ order as part of a radical plan to stop trolls.

Anti-bullying charities are using a powerful parliamentary inquiry to call for a criminalisation of trolling — including giving child cyber-bullies a social media order (SMO) that would ban them from contacting their victims and using sites such as Facebook and Instagram.

It comes after 14-year-old Amy “Dolly” Everett took her own life on January 3 after being targeted by bullies online.

Cyber-safety expert Ross Bark, who runs education courses across NSW through his company Best Enemies, agreed the creation of an “SMO” would be helpful.

“It would be useful to be able to ban offenders from Facebook, Instagram and social media but it would need to be coupled with education so they can actually learn the very real effect they are having on their victims,” Mr Bark said.

Read the full article in The Daily Telegraph here

Kids are being exposed to disturbing content on YouTube

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A Current Affair – Channel 9

The summer holidays are peak internet season for families – but parents have been warned about a trend of violent, graphic cartoons specifically designed to target children.

The cartoons feature beloved children’s characters such as Peppa Pig, Spider-Man and Elsa from Frozen, but feature gruesome acts including murder, cannibalism and pornography.

“Your child could be viewing the Peppa Pig video which could be a proper video, and in one second they could be watching something completely inappropriate, which they think is the same thing,” Cyber Expert Ross Bark told A Current Affair.

Watch the full story and my comments from last weeks A Current Affair.