Issue 2307 - Monday 7 April

The News

Superannuation industry ‘cyberattacks’ are overhyped but also how can you not have 2FA in 2025?

Superannuation online portals are back up and running after various funds were targeted with credential stuffing attacks last week (ABC News). According to various reports, fewer than 10,000 people were affected and only $500,000 was stolen from 4 AustralianSuper customers using stolen passwords from other accounts (The Guardian Australia). It’s not often I say this but I agree with the Prime Minister’s cybersecurity take: “There is a cyber attack in Australia roughly every 6 minutes. This is a regular issue,” he said. For an industry as big as superannuation ($4 trillion+ managed across 22+ million accounts), half a mill lost and a few thousand accounts harmlessly hacked using old passwords? Not exactly a five alarm fire. In fact, it’s a cyber attack but I wouldn’t even call it a hack as some outlets have. That being said, it boggles the mind that a company like AustralianSuper does not have mandatory 2FA. This is bush league stuff, folks, and apparently the super funds could face fines from the regulator over subpar security (The Australian, $).

You probably haven’t noticed it but the Minecraft Movie is the biggest thing in the world right now

Unless you are in two specific groups — a child aged 6-15, or a parent or associate of said child — you probably have no idea that A Minecraft Movie just debuted at the box office. It had the highest grossing opening weekend for a video game-based movie ever (BBC). Yes, it dethroned cinematic masterpieces like The Super Mario Brothers Movie and Sonic the Hedgehog 3. What’s particularly funny about this success is that the Minecraft movie has been panned by reviewers (“Some reviewers questioned the purpose or value of the film, with some viewing it as nothing more than a product with the intent of promoting Minecraft,” says Wikipedia) but it really doesn’t matter because we’re talking about the best selling game of all time (BBC). Nor has this release been affected by a leak of an unfinished version of the movie online, which has been seeded to torrent sites so that people are unwittingly ending up with a bizarre version of the movie with PS2-level graphics (Kotaku).

Home batteries promise, but otherwise no tech to be seen this election

Outside of the Trump tariff mess, the closest thing we’ve had to technology announcements so far this election has been Labor’s plan to subsidise household batteries (The Guardian Australia). The party says it’ll spend $2.3 billion to cut battery prices by 30%. The Coalition is also reportedly going to make an announcement on the policy but hasn’t yet (but still found time to again praise Elon Musk and Starlink, per Guardian Australia). But as I’ve been saying, the tech election story so far has been just how much the parties agree on tech policy that could be worth fighting over. My comrade Josh Taylor had a nice little piece responding to a fawning TIME article on Albo’s social media ban (TIME) that pointed out that the public won’t get to see a preliminary report prepared for the government about various age social media methods before the election despite it being ready (Guardian Australia). It might be nice to actually see some policy debate!

Leftovers

Oh, Also

A Sizzler’s journey to digital sovereignty

Sizzler Andrew shared a blog post about his plans for giving up Big Tech and attaining digital sovereignty (Bednarz). Since it’s something that I know many other Sizzlers are interested in and to peer pressure him into following through, I’m sharing it with you all here. You can either read it through your browser or subscribe it as newsletter here. Godspeed Andrew!

(PS do you have a fun tech project or side-hustle? I love seeing and hearing what Sizzlers are up to. Make sure to tell me about it or to drop it into the Slack server and forum)

Bargains

Electrical & Electronics

Computing

Mobile

The End

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The Sizzle is created on Gadigal land and acknowledges the traditional owners of country throughout Australia, recognising their continuing connection to land, water and community. I pay my respect to them and their cultures and to elders both past and present.