In privacy news, the NZ government’s Earthquake Commission leaks 83,000 citizens’ personal data, while Microsoft details how it handed over information of about 2600 Australian users to authorities. [ + ]

The IT industry has once again called for Australian businesses to move online, warning that they risk getting left behind by their more innovative competitors. There are some free tools to help - and we’re looking for more. [ + ]

Oracle’s founder and CEO Larry Ellison today announced two new processor families and server ranges that, according to independent benchmarks, deliver markedly better bang for buck than IBM. [ + ]

US feds are investigating claims Microsoft and some of its business partners bribed government officials around the globe in return for software contracts. Meanwhile, executives at Microsoft, Apple and Adobe faced tough questions from Australian MPs at an inquiry into why Australians are charged more than those in the US for identical products. [ + ]

In the last week, NBN partner Syntheo handed over construction duties in NT over to NBN Co, and NBN Co revealed a three-month delay in construction of the network. [ + ]

The panic in Cyprus surrounding plans to levy private citizens’ bank accounts to pay for a bailout has driven a steep rise in the value of digital currency, Bitcoin. [ + ]

The Asia Cloud Forum, an online media portal, has been created to represent the interests of enterprise users, governments, telcos, vendors, policy makers and others with a stake in the development of cloud computing in Asia.

At the recent NICTA TechFest, held at Parliament House in Canberra, we had the opportunity to speak with Professor Robert C Williamson, the leader of NICTA’s Machine Learning team, about some of the big innovations he thinks CIOs need to keep their eyes on. [ + ]

Malnets are a lucrative source of income for distributors and they are becoming more sophisticated everyday. How can your business stay ahead of the distributors to protect your business? [ + ]

Last week the Australian branch of ICT services provider Gen-i announced it will cut approximately two-thirds of its staff, and an inquiry into the Queensland Health payroll fiasco, which is said to have burned many hundreds of millions of state funds and may have involved collusion, began. [ + ]

Security is always high up on the list of issues IT decision makers need to manage. One of the most challenging aspects of security is that the types of threats are changing and the environment we’re protecting is shifting as mobility, the cloud and other trends alter the way we work. Anthony Caruana spoke with four security gurus to get their views on the changing threat matrix. [ + ]

A new report has detailed three possible versions of the NBN should the Coalition take power in September’s federal election. Meanwhile, NBN Co has awarded Visionstream a construction contract worth up to $1 billion for the east coast of Australia. But some have questioned whether the contract will survive the election. [ + ]

We’re all talking about the cloud but is it really ready for the enterprise? [ + ]

A NASA-developed, laser-based space communication system will enable higher rates of satellite communications similar in capability to high-speed fibre-optic networks on Earth. [ + ]

CSIRO recently launched Australia’s largest publicly funded research initiative focused on the digital economy. The Digital Productivity and Services Flagship (DPAS) is a $40 million research initiative focusing on the services sector and optimising the full value of national broadband infrastructure. [ + ]