Australia’s wealthiest suburbs revealed … Microsoft patches “zero day” exploit … Unemployment steady at 5.9%

By Dominic Powell and Emma Koehn 

The Australian Taxation Office has revealed Australia’s suburbs with the highest-earning residents, with New South Wales’ suburbs taking home seven of the top 10 locations.

The data, taken from 2014-15 tax return statistics, shows Sydney postcode 2027 to contain the highest earning Australians reports The New Daily, with the average individual income coming in at $189,293. This suburb includes Point Piper, where Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull owns a property.

Only two Victorian postcodes make it into the countries top 10 richest locations, 3142 and 3944, which are home to the suburbs of Hawksburn, Toorak, and Portsea. Western Australian suburbs Cottesloe and Peppermint Grove snuck in at number nine.

Within the top 10 locations, residents’ professions include legal practitioners, medical specialists, mining engineers, and chief executives and managing directors.

Australia’s top 10 richest suburbs:

1. 2027 (NSW): Darling Point, Edgecliff, Hmas Rushcutters, Point Piper
2. 2030 (NSW): Dover Heights, Hmas Watson, Rose Bay North, Vaucluse, Watsons Bay
3. 3142 (VIC): Hawksburn, Toorak
4. 2023 (NSW): Bellevue Hill
5. 3944 (VIC): Portsea
6. 2088 (NSW): Mosman, Spit Junction
7. 2110 (NSW): Hunters Hill, Woolwich
8. 2063 (NSW): Northbridge
9. 6011 (WA): Cottesloe, Peppermint Grove
10. 2025 (NSW): Woollahra

Microsoft quickly patches critical exploit targeting users’ banking details

SMEs are advised to update their Microsoft Office software, after an exploit was revealed in Microsoft Word that allowed hackers to insert malware and steal users’ banking information.

The bug, detected last week by various cyber security software companies, is what’s known as a “zero-day” exploit, which means the exploit is not announced before becoming active, giving companies zero days to respond to the threat.

The malware inserted is known a Dridex, a notorious banking trojan, which bypasses multiple security threats built into Windows and executes the bug without users having to enable “macros” on Word, a common method for inserting malicious software.

Brian Burns, vice president of cyber security firm Proofpoint, believes the exploit targeted “millions” of Australian recipients, as the hackers “wanted to take advantage of the small window before it was patched”.

“Sending it to Australian organisations early on Tuesday morning Australian time/late Tuesday US time provided a longer window of possible exposure,” Burns said in a statement.

“Because of the widespread effectiveness and rapid weaponisation of this recent 0-day vulnerability, it is critical that users and organisations apply today’s Microsoft patch as soon as possible.”

Unemployment stays steady

Australia’s unemployment rate remained steady in the month of March, increasing by less than 0.1 percentage points to 5.9%.

More than 60,000 jobs were created over the past month, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, and the number of full-time workers increased by 74,500, while the number of part-time workers decreased by 13,600 for the month.

The job creation numbers were stronger than analyst expectations, and after the release of the ABS report at 11:30am, the Australian dollar jumped to US75.7c.

Never miss a story: sign up to SmartCompany’s free daily newsletter and find our best stories on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.