Tech Talks With Kinsoft

Steven Kinnas

Tech Talks with Kinsoft is your insider pass to the ever-evolving world of technology. We break down the latest in tech news, cybersecurity trends, and emerging innovations shaping our digital future. Whether you’re a seasoned IT pro, a curious techie, or a business leader navigating digital transformation, our conversations are packed with insights, real-world takeaways, and a healthy dose of tech-savvy clarity. Hosted by the Kinsoft team with decades of industry expertise—because in tech, staying ahead isn’t optional.

  1. 5h ago

    RMS Cloud - A Booking Platform Breach, Scam Messages with Real Reservation Details, and the Accommodation Providers Left to Warn Their Own Guests

    G'day and welcome to Tech Talks with Kinsoft. Today we look at a breach at RMS Cloud, a booking-management software provider used by more than 6,000 hotels, holiday parks and serviced apartments worldwide. In late October, guests of several Australian accommodation providers began receiving WhatsApp, SMS and email messages that referenced genuine booking details and claimed a payment had failed. Operators including BIG4 parks, Reflections Holidays and Summerstar Tourist Parks warned guests, and later reports named hotel and pub groups too. RMS says it is investigating, is working with cyber and forensic specialists, and that no payment card information was exposed from RMS. What we know: names, contact details and booking dates were reportedly accessed, according to one council operator. What we do not know: how the attackers got in, how many guests are affected, or when the breach began. No attacker has been publicly named. We walk through the timeline, why a "payment failed" message with real details is so convincing, what small and mid-sized operators can learn about supplier risk, and what to do if you have stayed at an affected property. Visit www.kinsoft.com.au to talk through your security and IT needs. Sources: ABC News; Cyber Daily; The Standard (Warrnambool); Insurance Business Australia; CISO AI.

    RMS Cloud - A Booking Platform Breach, Scam Messages with Real Reservation Details, and the Accommodation Providers Left to Warn Their Own Guests

  2. 2d ago

    Last Week in Tech - PHP2Shell Roots Palo Alto Firewalls, a Tech Sell-Off Over AI Spending, and AI Agents Testing Their Limits

    G'day and welcome to Last Week in Tech from Tech Talks with Kinsoft. This is your roundup of the biggest technology and cybersecurity stories from 24 to 31 October 2026, through a business and IT lens. In this episode: PHP2Shell escalates. The two critical PHP flaws (CVE-2026-109618 and CVE-2026-109619, CVSS 9.2 per Tenable's CVSS v4 score) were added to CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalogue on 26 October. Researchers at Dream Research report that an attacker, assessed by Palo Alto's Unit 42 as Chinese-speaking, chained them with a Linux kernel flaw to take root on 25 Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS firewall and management servers. Tech sell-off. Alphabet fell sharply on 29 October, then Intel plunged about 29 per cent on 30 October after a weak forecast, and the Nasdaq closed down about 2.9 per cent. Investors want AI spending to turn into revenue. AI agents. Security firm Cathedral says its AI agents reached internal Anthropic business systems in under 12 hours; Anthropic says only a limited set of sales, HR and IT systems was involved and disputes the broader claims. OpenAI says red-team agents escaped training sandboxes. And researchers show a booby-trapped AGENTS.md file can steer coding agents. Third-party breaches. Quest Diagnostics says an unauthorised party accessed patient records on its Quanum lab platform, and airline reservation data is exposed through Amadeus. A holiday park booking platform breach also reached Australia, which we cover on Wednesday. Visit www.kinsoft.com.au to talk through your security and IT needs. Sources: CISA; Dream Research; Tenable; Palo Alto Networks Unit 42; Yahoo Finance; Reuters; InformationWeek; The Washington Post via Decrypt; OpenAI; Help Net Security; SEC filing (Quest Diagnostics); Privacy Guides.

    Last Week in Tech - PHP2Shell Roots Palo Alto Firewalls, a Tech Sell-Off Over AI Spending, and AI Agents Testing Their Limits

  3. Oct 22

    France's Supermarket Fridges - Overnight Defrost, Tens of Millions in Lost Stock, and the Controllers Exposed to the Internet

    Overnight on 11 to 12 October 2026, refrigeration controllers at supermarkets across France were reportedly driven into continuous defrost, warming fridges and freezers, with temperatures reported as high as 50 degrees Celsius. Several chains, including Intermarché, Coopérative U, Carrefour and Monoprix, were reported affected, and Leclerc says it was hit too; store counts vary widely by outlet, from about 250 to more than 500. Reported so far: the Paris prosecutor opened an investigation into a large-scale attack on connected refrigerators; the French Prime Minister's office reportedly ordered the national cybersecurity agency, ANSSI, to investigate; and Thierry Cotillard, who heads Les Mousquetaires (Intermarché's parent group), estimated losses in the tens of millions of euros in a single day. Danfoss, the controller maker, says affected units ran outdated firmware that customers had long been urged to update or replace. Not confirmed: who did it, and exactly how they got in. Earlier vulnerabilities in the Danfoss AK-SM 8xxA family are suspected but have not been confirmed as the route. We cover what happened, why refrigeration is an internet-connected operational technology system, the research that warned of this, and what a small hospitality or retail business in Australia should do about its own cold rooms, air conditioning and CCTV controllers. Visit www.kinsoft.com.au to talk through your security and IT needs. Sources: BleepingComputer; Al Jazeera; Security Affairs; Claroty Team82; CISA advisory ICSA-25-140-03; Danfoss advisory DSA-2025-08-01.

    France's Supermarket Fridges - Overnight Defrost, Tens of Millions in Lost Stock, and the Controllers Exposed to the Internet

  4. Oct 20

    Icon Cancer Centre - A Fax-to-Email Gateway, a Dark Web Sales Post, and the Supplier Nobody Named

    On 12 October, Icon Group, the company behind Icon Cancer Centre, one of the largest dedicated cancer care providers in Australia, published a notice that someone had gained unauthorised access to patient information. Not in its core clinical systems, but in an externally hosted, third-party-managed system that converts faxes to email. What Icon has confirmed: the unauthorised access, the type of system involved, that it believes the records are business correspondence documents rather than full patient files, that it has notified the Australian Federal Police and relevant regulators, that it has reset access and engaged forensic advisers, and that patient care continues. What Icon has not confirmed: how many people are affected, exactly what data is involved, when the intrusion happened, or the name of the supplier. What has been claimed, and is unverified: Cyber Daily reports that an actor calling itself "2019" posted a sale on a hacking forum claiming more than 31,000 documents with names, addresses, diagnoses and Medicare details. Icon has not confirmed those figures. We walk through the timeline, why a fax gateway matters, what obligations apply under the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme, and what any organisation that sends health or financial documents by fax or email should ask its suppliers this week. If you have been affected by a data breach, IDCARE offers free support in Australia and New Zealand. Visit www.kinsoft.com.au to talk through your security and IT needs. Sources: Icon Group notice (12 Oct, updated 15 Oct); Cyber Daily (original reporting; DataBreaches.net republished it); OAIC; IDCARE.

    Icon Cancer Centre - A Fax-to-Email Gateway, a Dark Web Sales Post, and the Supplier Nobody Named

  5. Oct 18

    Last Week in Tech - Ivanti's Unpatched Chain, a Record 1,400-Fix Patch Tuesday, and the Essential Eight Gets a Successor

    G'day and welcome to Last Week in Tech from Tech Talks with Kinsoft. This is your roundup of the biggest technology and cybersecurity stories from 10 to 17 October 2026, through a business and IT lens. Ivanti Connect Secure zero-day. Volexity reported an authentication-bypass and code-execution flaw, CVE-2026-104935, exploited from around 3 October. It was chained with a third weakness, a privilege escalation to root, that has no CVE and no fix yet. Ivanti says a fix is due in the coming weeks, as of the end of last week. A record Microsoft Patch Tuesday. Roughly 1,400 vulnerabilities fixed on 13 October, with experts pointing partly to AI-assisted discovery. We look at what that volume means for patching rhythm in a small team. Cisco Secure Email Gateway. A flaw reported as exploited, with fixes that shipped a month before the advisory and no fix at all for the 16.0 release line. ASD Essentials. The Australian Signals Directorate has launched the successor to the Essential Eight, moving away from the maturity-level ladder. Ahold Delhaize. The retail group, with more than 9,400 stores, took systems offline after a security incident confirmed on 12 October. Cause and data impact are not yet known. AI and the cost of fixing bugs. Bank of America's CEO described 1,000 contractors brought in to patch vulnerabilities surfaced by AI, and an Australian wealth firm has been penalised $1.35 million over cyber security failures. Visit www.kinsoft.com.au to talk through your security and IT needs. Sources: Volexity; Rapid7; The Hacker News; Dark Reading; CSO Online; BleepingComputer; Cyber Daily; ITnews; CNBC via Benzinga and ITPro; ASIC media release 26-244MR.

    Last Week in Tech - Ivanti's Unpatched Chain, a Record 1,400-Fix Patch Tuesday, and the Essential Eight Gets a Successor

  6. Oct 15

    ASOS - One Phished Login, a Hijacked Push Notification, and the Marketing Tools Nobody Was Watching

    UK online fashion retailer ASOS confirmed a data breach after attackers used a phished employee login to access third-party marketing platforms, steal customer data and send an "ASOS HACKED" push notification to app users. Timeline (UK time). Tuesday 6 October, ~10:00 — push notification sent through the ASOS app linking to a Telegram channel for "Xuanye Group"; shares fall up to ~13% intraday and close down ~10%; ASOS files a London Stock Exchange update and restricts access to its notification platforms; the NCSC tells customers to assume they are affected. Wednesday 7 October — statement from the UK Information Commission (formerly the ICO); attackers send the BBC a data sample. Thursday 8 October — ASOS emails customers explaining the attack route. How it happened. Per ASOS: an unauthorised party gained access to an employee account "by impersonating a trusted contact to obtain log in credentials", and used them to access "certain third-party platforms used by Asos". No CVE involved. Snowflake says the incident "was not caused by Snowflake" and no compromise of its platform was found. What was taken. Per ASOS: names, contact details and some non-personal account information. Per the BBC: names, addresses, phone numbers, emails, customer numbers and dates of birth, plus on-site search terms in the attackers' sample; ASOS told customers profiles of potentially millions of users were taken. Payment cards and passwords not affected, per ASOS. Exact customer count not disclosed. Unverified claims. Xuanye Group's claims to have "fully compromised" Snowflake (denied), to have entered via Simon AI, and to want a ransom by a two-week deadline are all unverified. Attribution unknown. Lessons. Treat marketing and customer-messaging platforms as critical systems: inventory them, put them behind SSO and MFA, and restrict who can message every customer. Use phishing-resistant MFA and help-desk identity checks. Prepare a holding statement for an attacker-driven disclosure. Warn customers what follow-up scams will look like. Visit www.kinsoft.com.au to talk through your security and IT needs. Sources: ASOS LSE announcement and customer email (via SecurityWeek, The Record, City AM); BBC; UK NCSC; UK Information Commission; Snowflake (via Infosecurity Magazine); Help Net Security; Malwarebytes; ACS Information Age; Hackread.

    ASOS - One Phished Login, a Hijacked Push Notification, and the Marketing Tools Nobody Was Watching

  7. Oct 13

    St Andrew's Hospital - Patient Data Downloaded, a Limited Statement, and the Exemption Health Never Had

    St Andrew's Hospital, an independent not-for-profit private hospital in the Adelaide CBD, confirmed on Thursday 8 October 2026 that patients' personal information was downloaded from its servers in a cyber incident. What the hospital said. Its CIO, Nathan Crettenden, told the ABC an internal investigation "identified that a subset of data from our servers was downloaded", and that systems were taken offline as a precaution and forensic specialists engaged. CEO Angela McCabe said the investigation had "progressed to the point where we can communicate directly with affected individuals, in line with our regulatory obligations". The OAIC and the ACSC have been notified. The SA Premier, Peter Malinauskas, said the government expected to be briefed, including on whether SA criminal law was broken. What was taken. The hospital has confirmed only personal information of "a group of individuals". 7NEWS reported the data included names, phone numbers, home addresses, email addresses, dates of birth, Medicare card numbers and healthcare identifiers. No information has been released on clinical records or payment data. Unknown. The number of people affected (the hospital declined to say), when access began and was detected, the attack vector, whether ransomware was involved, and whether there has been a demand. No group had claimed the attack at the time of writing. Lessons. Minimise identifiers you store, such as Medicare numbers and IDs, and segregate the ones you must keep. The Privacy Act's small-business exemption ($3m turnover) does not apply to health service providers holding health information, so even small clinics are covered by the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme: assess suspected breaches within 30 days and notify affected people and the OAIC as soon as practicable. Have a containment plan and a decision-maker ready. Communicate clearly about what you know, what you don't, and when you'll update. Affected individuals can contact Services Australia about Medicare card concerns and IDCARE for support. Visit www.kinsoft.com.au to talk through your security and IT needs. Sources: ABC News (8 Oct 2026); 7NEWS; YourLifeChoices; St Andrew's Hospital; OAIC (Notifiable Data Breaches scheme; small business exemption guidance).

    St Andrew's Hospital - Patient Data Downloaded, a Limited Statement, and the Exemption Health Never Had

  8. Oct 11

    Last Week in Tech - NetScaler's Patch Needs a Patch, Atlassian Servers Attacked Within Hours, and 86,000 Firewalls Already Owned

    Last Week in Tech for Monday 12 October 2026, covering the week from 3 October. Citrix NetScaler — two more bulletins. CVE-2026-88779 (3 Oct US): memory overflow causing DoS on appliances configured as SAML SP or IdP; CVSS v4.0 8.7; exploited in the wild (Citrix; CISA KEV 4 Oct). CVE-2026-107406 (8 Oct): memory overflow leading to RCE or DoS; CVSS v4.0 9.5; no known exploitation at publication. Builds 14.1-73.37 to -73.41 and 13.1-64.23 to -64.28 (including the 88779 fixes) are vulnerable when configured as SAML IdP; older builds as SAML SP or IdP. Fixed: 14.1-73.46, 13.1-64.29 and FIPS/NDcPP equivalents. Atlassian CVE-2026-21589 (5 Oct). Unauthenticated file read in Data Center editions of Jira Software, Jira Service Management, Confluence, Bitbucket, Bamboo, Crowd, Crucible and Fisheye; CVSS v4.0 9.3. Cloud already patched. watchTowr's 6 Oct analysis showed Crowd credentials readable in plaintext and usable to create a Jira admin. Exploitation attempts reported by security firms from 6 Oct. Patch, restrict internet access, rotate Crowd credentials. FortiBleed (FBI/USSS advisory, 6 Oct). No CVE: credential stuffing, password spraying and cracking of legacy SHA-256 admin hashes on FortiGate. 86,644 compromised devices in 194 countries (SOCRadar figure cited by the advisory). Attackers delete or change original admin accounts; access sold to INC/Lynx and Payload ransomware groups. Check for rogue admins, reset credentials, enforce MFA, remove internet-facing admin, audit API keys, use PBKDF2 (FortiOS 7.2.11, 7.4.8, 7.6.1+). FortiMail CVE-2026-104286 fixes (8.0.2, 7.6.7, 7.4.9) have shipped; 7.2 must migrate. Integrity Technology Group advisory (8 Oct). FBI-led, seven-nation advisory co-sealed by ASD's ACSC: sanctioned Beijing firm stealing email since 2021 (overlaps Flax Typhoon); password-spraying Exchange/M365 endpoints, OAuth-app persistence, a portal for third parties to browse stolen mail. CISA added five old CVEs to KEV. OpenAI agents (5 Oct). Wikimedia reports edits, attempted proxy abuse and a failed exploit attempt by agents it believes were operated by OpenAI; no compromise found. ABC/iTnews (2 and 4 Oct): an OpenAI agent accessed a NSW NPWS fire-data web app in June, reported to NSW on 1 Oct; no personal information accessed identified. AI business. Firmus shelves its planned US$5bn ASX IPO (implied US$30.6bn valuation, per Reuters). Schneider Electric to buy PTC for US$205/share cash, about US$22.6bn. OVIC report (iTnews, 7 Oct). Victorian student data breach traced to an unpatched school server despite an ASD alert and department directive; central vulnerability management promised by end-2028. Coming up: Wednesday, St Andrew's Hospital, Adelaide. Friday, ASOS. Visit www.kinsoft.com.au to talk through your security and IT needs. Sources: Citrix CTX697174, CTX697191; CISA KEV; watchTowr; BleepingComputer; The Hacker News; SecurityWeek; Atlassian; Rapid7; Infosecurity Magazine; iTnews; FBI/USSS FortiBleed advisory (6 Oct); SOCRadar; Fortinet; FBI/ASD joint advisory AA26-281A; Wikimedia Foundation; Help Net Security; ABC; Reuters; The Register; Bloomberg; OVIC.

    Last Week in Tech - NetScaler's Patch Needs a Patch, Atlassian Servers Attacked Within Hours, and 86,000 Firewalls Already Owned
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About

Tech Talks with Kinsoft is your insider pass to the ever-evolving world of technology. We break down the latest in tech news, cybersecurity trends, and emerging innovations shaping our digital future. Whether you’re a seasoned IT pro, a curious techie, or a business leader navigating digital transformation, our conversations are packed with insights, real-world takeaways, and a healthy dose of tech-savvy clarity. Hosted by the Kinsoft team with decades of industry expertise—because in tech, staying ahead isn’t optional.

Information

  • Creator
    Steven Kinnas
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    140
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Steven Kinnas enquiries@kinsoft.com.au
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    Tech Talks With Kinsoft