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Nissan Australia has confirmed that customer data was accessed during its December cyber breach and subsequently posted on the dark web, potentially exposing local Nissan owners to identity theft, scams and fraud – among other possible offenses.
News of the cyberattack on the Japanese car-maker first broke on December 8, when Nissan Australia and New Zealand urged its customers to be “vigilant across their accounts” and monitor them for “any unusual or scam activities”.
Today, Nissan Australia and NZ confirmed that local customer data was accessed and issued new recommendations for its buyers to change their online passwords, enable multi-factor authentication where possible and avoid clicking on any links or opening any suspicious emails or attachments.
“We are now aware that some data was accessed in the incident and posted on the dark web,” said Nissan’s local division in a statement on its website today.
“We are working urgently with our global incident response team and cyber forensic experts to understand what information was accessed and the types of information that was posted on the dark web.
“Where we identify customer data has been accessed in a manner which gives rise to a risk of serious harm, we will contact you in accordance with our legal obligations, including to let you know what information was involved and what support is available to you.
“We have already notified the Australian Cyber Security Centre and the New Zealand National Cyber Security Centre, and the relevant privacy regulators and law enforcement bodies, and we are keeping them updated on our investigation.
“We are deeply sorry for any concerns this has caused for those who have been impacted.
“Thank you for your understanding and patience with our team at this time.”
This is the latest development in the second high-profile cyber incident to affect Australian car owners in the past 12 months or so, following an international privacy breach that involved 2800 local Toyota customers in May last year.
While Nissan is working frantically to ascertain exactly what information has been accessed and leaked online, the Toyota breach included names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, customer IDs, vehicle registration and vehicle identification numbers (VINs).
Perhaps more worrying is the fact data including customer credit card details could also have been accessed.
Apart from listing steps you can take to help safeguard against identity theft, scams or fraud, Nissan has established a dedicated contact line to provide updates (03 9000 0814) between 8:30am-5:00pm AEDT weekdays.
It also advises affected customers to contact IDCare, the national identity and cyber support service in Australia (1800 595 160) and NZ (0800 121 068), to report a scam in Australia by visiting?Scamwatch.
Nissan will provide updates on the situation via a dedicated landing page on its Australian website and you can request a free credit report and check for any applications or requests that you did not make from a credit reporting body in Australia (Equifax, illion and Experian) or New Zealand (Centrix, Equifax and illion).
Or email us at
Young people in Armidale are honing their video-game skills at a one-of-a-kind local competition.
Kids as young as 12, attracting big crowds to take part in the world of streaming.
Citi, one of the largest investment banks operating in the country, does not plan to reduce its local presence despite outlining plans at the weekend to cut 20,000 jobs from its operations globally as part of a major cost-cutting exercise.
It has been a difficult year for the New York-headquartered firm, with investment banking fees in Australia falling 23 per cent last year, to $US72.6 million ($109 million), according to data compiled by LSEG, formerly Refinitiv.
Sources close to the bank, who spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to comment publicly, said Citi had no plans to pull back its services in Australia, and developing the local banking and markets business was part of its strategy.
Citibank announced big job cuts in the US on Friday.
There would be minimal jobs lost in Australia, those sources said. A Citi spokeswoman declined to comment on the specifics of the job cuts, but said Australia was “an important market [for the bank] and we will continue to grow and invest in the business”.
In November, The Australian Financial Review reported that Citi had reorganised its regional leadership. Its country head, Mark Woodruff, now reports to Hong Kong-based Angel Ng, who oversees the bank’s North Asian and Australian group.
The Australian and New Zealand business, which employs about 900 people, is part of Citi’s banking and international organisation. Some local back office jobs have already been terminated when the bank laid off employees late last year.
The changes at Citi are the latest upheaval in Australia’s investment banking industry. Credit Suisse, a long-time presence, no longer exists as its own business after being acquired by UBS, and many of its most senior staff have left for rivals, including its head of investment banking, Dragi Ristevski, who is now at Macquarie.
Another European major, Deutsche Bank, is considering returning to local deal making after largely exiting the market in 2019. It once had one of the biggest advisory businesses, assisting the NSW government on its $US7.4 billion sale of TransGrid and Santos on a $2.5 billion rights issue, both in 2015.
Citi, headed by chief executive Jane Fraser, announced plans for the job cuts, some 10 per cent of the company’s staff, as North American investment banks began conveying bonuses awarded to their employees. Locally, wealth managers and traders across fixed-income products will pocket healthier bonuses than investment bankers in corporate advisory and capital markets.
Most bankers in mergers and acquisitions saw their bonus payments fall up to 20 per cent from last year, while those underwriting equity offerings saw between 5 and 10 per cent dips in variable compensation, four people said.
“At the global banks, even bankers in smaller geographies are impacted by how the overall firm performs,” said Christopher Connors, a principal at compensation consultants Johnson Associates.
“When determining individual bonuses for senior bankers, myriad factors are taken into account, including firm performance, business unit performance, individual performance and market levels.”
Dealmaking was hampered by stubborn inflation and higher financing costs, which contributed to a global slump in transactions. Given the worldwide glut in M&A and initial public offerings, Australia-based bankers will share from a shallower bonus pool, dictated by results in North America and Europe, the people said.
Citi’s most senior local bankers, Alex Cartel and Mark Woodruff. The local bank is not expecting major changes. Oscar Colman
Wall Street’s largest institutions typically set the scene for the year’s bonuses as their fourth quarter earnings outline how much they have allocated on expenses, and provide a benchmark for others to follow.
Morgan Stanley notified bankers last Wednesday of their bonuses, JPMorgan will inform its staff on Tuesday, Goldman Sachs and Citi will communicate bonuses next week, while Bank of America will do so in late January. European banks, including UBS and Barclays, typically inform staff of their bonuses in February.
Credit and fixed-income traders, however, hoped their bonuses would spike up to 5 per cent, after traders capitalised on more Australasian bond deals, which increased 5 per cent to $US222 billion ($332 billion) last year. Unlike investment banking, much of Australian credit trading is conducted by local banks such as Westpac and ANZ, which compete with Barrenjoey and Deutsche Bank, among others.
Citi, outlining its fourth quarter results, said its fixed-income traders had their worst performance in five years as its global rates and currencies business was hurt by lower client activity towards the end of the year.
Johnson Associates estimated that bonuses for banks’ equities sales and trading teams would fall up to 10 per cent on average, while fixed income was predicted to be flat-to-5 per cent higher than last year. “Bonus pools in advisory will be hit the hardest as M&A deal volume hit fresh lows after a lacklustre 2022,” Mr Connors said.
Locally, the brightest spot for bonuses has been wealth management, which saw remarkable change last year with Credit Suisse’s demise and greater appetite for advisory work from the likes of Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, LGT Crestone and, after integrating Credit Suisse in Australia, UBS.
Advisers working with family offices and rich individuals have raked in greater revenue thanks to client demand for alternative investments like private credit, people said.
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Casino’s Mitch Haynes took home the checkered flag at the recent Lil Aussie Open Speedway.
Lismore’s Jacob Jolley also finished second in the Wingless Sprints, against tough competiiton from across the country.
In 2023, one artist conquered an entire nation, and it wasn’t an Australian artist. Not one local artist with a song or album released last year made the end-of-year ARIA charts.
Taylor Swift had 36 Top 40 singles in Australia in 2023. The combined total for every Australian artist was 13.
Only three homegrown hits made the Top 10 for the entire year, and none went to number one – the first time an Aussie act has failed to top the ARIA singles chart since 2017.
Thirteen Taylor Swift songs made the Top 10, with Is It Over Now? spending two weeks at number one.
Six of the 13 Australian Top 40 entries came from just two artists (The Kid LAROI and Troye Sivan had three Top 40 singles each).
The Aussie total was even worse than 2022, when 20 homegrown hits reached the Top 40, and 2021 (23) and 2020 (26).
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Today, ARIA released its Top 100 singles and albums for 2023. Both charts failed to feature a single Australian entry that was actually released in 2023.
The year’s biggest album was 1989 (Taylor’s Version), which spent nine weeks at number one. Taylor Swift dominated, with five of the year’s ten biggest albums and 10 of the Top 50.
2023’s biggest single was Miley Cyrus’ Flowers, which spent 12 weeks at number one.
The top local single was The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber’s Stay, which came in at #36 after being the third biggest song of 2022.
The Top 100 features just two other Aussie entries: Vance Joy’s 2013 single Riptide at #52 and Dean Lewis’ 2022 hit How Do I Say Goodbye at #68.
2022’s Top 100 featured 11 homegrown hits.
2023’s Top 100 features just four Aussie albums (compared to 11 in 2022), led by INXS’s The Very Best – originally released in 2011 – at #58, followed by Tame Impala’s Currents (#76), Spacey Jane’s Here Comes Everybody (87) and The Kid LAROI’s F*ck Love (Over You) (#94).
What was the defining Aussie song of 2023? Arguably, it was Kylie Minogue’s Padam Padam, which has been nominated for a Grammy. But it failed to crack the Top 10, peaking at #19. And it was not one of 2023’s Top 50 biggest radio hits as revealed by The Music before Christmas (Peking Duk & Darren Hayes’ I Want You was the leading local entrant at #19).
Boy George ponders Padam Padam’s lack of airplay in his new autobiography, Karma, and takes a swipe at radio programmers. “How come BBC Radio did not play Padam Padam by Kylie if it’s the public that decides?
“I realise that not every artist can make it to the playlist but don’t pretend there is some intellectual process involved. You are a bunch of c***s.”
Nine Aussie albums reached the summit in 2023 (compared to 13 in 2022 and 14 in 2021).
An alarming trend is the locals’ lack of staying power. When Powderfinger released their breakthrough album, 1996’s Double Allergic, the record company’s mantra was “keep it Top 10 for 10 weeks”, which they achieved.
But these days, most albums debut and then disappear.
No Aussie albums spent longer than one week at number one in 2023, and only two of the local chart-topping albums – Kylie’s Tension and Troye Sivan’s Something To Give Each Other – spent two weeks in the Top 10.
It’s a downward spiral for Aussie acts.
Overall, 46 Australian albums hit the Top 10 in 2023 (down from 56 in 2022, 64 in 2021, and 72 in 2020), and 90 made the Top 40 (down from 97 in 2022, 127 in 2021, and 131 in 2020).
The 2023 nadir for Aussie acts came during a week in July when the combined total of Top 40 singles and albums was Taylor Swift's 26 and Australia's 2.
In November, the score was Swift 25, Australia 6. The Christmas chart was Swift 13, Australia 3, while this week’s scoreboard is Swift 12, Australia 3.
ARIA CEO Annabelle Herd acknowledged the disappointing performance of Aussie acts.
“The 2023 charts tell an all-too-familiar story that we have been very vocal about for the past 24 months: there are simply not enough Australian artists – let alone new Australian artists – breaking through with their home audience,” Herd said in a statement. “We are just as frustrated as the rest of the music industry, and Aussie music lovers, to find only four Australian albums in the top 100 this year and three singles, none of which were released last year.
“It’s frustrating, but the data provided by these charts is an unbiased view of how Australian audiences consume music, and we need to use this data to understand we have a very urgent, very complex problem to solve. We need to address the damaging lack of data about contemporary music. We need more resources to grab the opportunity to become a net export nation. We need a strong financial commitment from Music Australia to ensure our artists have a chance of securing the global fame that they deserve. There is a huge opportunity in increasing streams from the ever-growing global market.”
Herd believes things will improve. “The good news is that we are at a turning point, with renewed support for Ausmusic from the Federal Government and various state governments, the establishment of Music Australia, Sound NSW, and the Centre for Creative Workplaces. We look forward to working with all of these bodies and the broader industry to help connect more Australian artists with fans in 2024, in the hope that we can change the narrative this time next year.”
The first two charts of 2024 have failed to feature a single Australian album in the Top 40.
The upside? Six Aussie artists scored their first chart-topping albums in 2023.
Cub Sport – Jesus At The Gay Bar
Peach PRC – Manic Dream Pixie
The Teskey Brothers – The Winding Way
Kerser – A Gift & A Kers
G Flip – Drummer
Powderfinger – Vulture Street (20th Anniversary Edition)
Polaris – Fatalism
Kylie Minogue – Tension
Troye Sivan – Something To Give Each Other
Flume feat MAY-A – Say Nothing (#4)
The Kid LAROI – Love Again (#6)
The Kid LAROI, Jung Kook, Central Cee – Too Much (#10)
It’s not often you get a hug from a shop assistant at your local supermarket… but The Village Grocer at New Lambton is unique.
The training centre for people with a disability provides service with a smile… and it’s calling for community support to stay afloat.
