Australia's peak technology group SAGE-AU today moved to allay public fears caused by “misinformation” from Federal Communications Minister Senator Stephen Conroy.

SAGE-AU warns that Senator Conroy's statements that Google could have acquired people's Internet banking details show a lack of understanding of the nature of secure Internet communications.

SAGE-AU represents Australia’s system administrators, the technology experts who keep computers and networks running.

SAGE-AU's spokesperson Iain Robertson said Senator Conroy’s claims were misinformation that verged on fear-mongering. “While it is clear Google's Street View cars collected more data than necessary - a practice not condoned by SAGE-AU - Internet banking data is safe from collection due to the nature of the communications from web browsers to Internet banking servers,” he said.

"Banking transactions conducted over the Internet use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption between web browsers and banking servers.  Such websites can be identified by the 'https://' part of a web address in the browser bar.

“The use of encryption in this manner is a proven technology and is part of banking industry standard practice throughout Australia. Even if portions of Internet banking communications were intercepted by Google's Street View cars, it is not possible for that data to be decrypted by unintended recipients such as Google."

As part of National Cyber Security Awareness Week, SAGE-AU recommends that all Internet users take basic steps to protect themselves, including the implementation of WPA2 wireless security on all home wireless devices.  This provides an additional layer of security for all Internet activity and thus protects your data against all eavesdropping attacks.

Media assistance

Donna Ashelford on 0401 714 350 or email president@sage-au.org.au

Iain Robertson on 0407 757 622 or email iain.robertson@member.sage-au.org.au

About SAGE-AU www.sage-au.org.au

SAGE-AU is the not-for-profit professional organisation representing this country’s system administrators, the technology experts who keep computers and networks running