FIRB fees for foreigners who buy property here could harm the education sector, according to a report in the Australian Financial Review. The intended measures indicate a lack of understanding of the full contibutions of foreign students to Australia.

The fact is overseas students often buy property as a short to medium term investment to cover their accommodation needs and provide a decent return which potentially could cover some if not all of their education costs. They benefit, but so does Australia.

However the government’s move in February to introduce a minimum fee of $5000 to foreign property buyers is short-sighted and will send the wrong signal to overseas students – that “they are not welcome”, says the senior economist at Fairfax- owned Domain Group Andrew Wilson.

Australian education exports are worth a lot and we “need more of these revenue sources, not less” Wilson told the AFR.

“…xenophobia is alive and well in certain sections of the community, and certain sections of the media want to stir it up. And yet there are so many positives about overseas students on temporary visas buying property in Australia. If they don’t buy property here and only rent, it pushes up rent,” says Wilson.

Wilson adds that foreign student buyers of property are providing substantial stamp duty revenue for state governments.

Passport numbers, dates of birth and visa details of the President of the United States of America together with those of some 30 other world leaders who attended the G20 summit including Russian president Vladmir Putin and German chancellor Angela Merkel were carelessly emailed out by a case officer at Australia’s department off immigration late last year.

The error has made international news with the likes of the Washington Post, CNBC, New York Times etc reporting the mistake and announcing that the White House is investigating the issue and looking into taking “all appropriate steps necessary to ensure the privacy and security of the president’s personal information."

The embarrassing error was a result of a mindless moment of a case officer who simply failed to check the autofill function to ensure the email had the correct recipient’s email address. The sensitive email was sent to an organiser of the Asian Cup Soccer tournament who for a moment would probably have been impressed with the high level interest in the tournament.

DIBP has brushed off the incident as an “isolated example of human error” and it considered the risks of the breach to be “very low”, according to a report in the ABC. An email to the privacy commissioner said then immigration minister Scott Morrison was notified but the department did not consider it necessary to notify the leaders involved.

Beware of resume emails bearing ransomware: Alert Priority High

Staysmartonline.gov.au have released information today which could affect migration agents, as people seeking to migrate to Australia will often send their CV / resume by email asking for an eligibility assessment.

You are advised to be wary of unsolicited emails purporting to attach resumes from potential job candidates. Malicious individuals are using these emails to deliver the CryptoWall 3.0 ransomware that can encrypt your files and require you to submit payment for the key to decrypt them.

The malicious emails come from a variety of addresses, including dustywarner[at]csi.com, MargaritoEverett[at]ebparks.org and SantiagoHenson[at]tom.com.

The email subject is typically ‘[first and last names of purported sender] – My resume’.

The email body generally reads:  ‘Hi, my name is [first and last names of purported sender]. I am herewith submitting my Resume under attachment for your perusal.

‘Thank you, [first name of purported sender here].

‘Attachment: [first and last names of purported sender] – My Resume.zip.’ 

A screenshot of a sample email is attached below.

 

The attachment is a .zip file which includes a single file named [first and last names of purported sender] MyResume.js. If a recipient of this email clicks on the .js file (JavaScript file), the file attempts to reach out to a list of servers and download .jpg files containing malicious executables that try to install the CryptoWall 3.0 ransomware.        

The attack appears to be targeting Australian companies and researchers indicate a new campaign may have been released on Tuesday last week.

When a user’s computer is infected with CryptoWall, the ransomware encrypts a range of file types with a strong encryption key. CryptoWall then typically displays a page to the user advising them their files have been encrypted and that they need to pay a ransom for the key to decrypt them. The message may also include a link to a website to make payment. 

It is important to note that for many victims, paying the ransom may lead to files being returned to normal. However, because you are dealing with criminals, you should be aware this is extortion and there are no guarantees you will regain access to your data. 

The criminals may not respond, they may increase their demands or they may attack you again. Unless you take preventative action, your computer will still have the same vulnerability that caused it to become infected in the first instance.

Staying safe 

Prevention is the best antidote to ransomware and other malware attacks.

Use spam filters and be cautious when opening emails, especially if there are attachments.

Make sure you are using a reputable security product.

Make sure it is up-to-date and switched on.

Make sure your operating system and applications are up-to-date.

Run a full scan of your computer—regularly.

Set and use strong and unique passwords.

Set passwords on all your hardware devices (modems and routers).                

Back up your data.

Keep a backup copy of your data in a safe place, disconnected from your computer and the internet.

Only visit reputable websites and online services.

Most up-to-date security software should identify and block ransomware. 

Recovery

The major problem with encryption based ransomware is that once your computer has become infected, the only way to recover your files is from a clean backup (if the backup has not also been encrypted) or by receiving the encryption key from the scammers.

If you have a clean back up of your data, you can use this to restore your files once you have re-established your system, free of infection.

You can also keep a copy of the encrypted files in case future events make decryption possible. Authorities may take down these ransomware gangs in the future and it might become possible to obtain the encryption key for your data.

More families from China are looking to enrol their young children in Australian schools in order to better their English and education from an earlier age, according to a report on the ABC.

The ‘go early strategy’ saw new enrolments of Chinese teenagers in Australian public and private schools hit 4,300 last year. The Australian Trade Commission said it was a rise of about 20 per cent on the previous year's new enrolments.

The total number of enrolments of Chinese school students rose to 8,386 in 2014, up from 7,447 in 2013.

Dr Minglu Chen, a lecturer at the University of Sydney's China Studies Centre, told the ABC that families were looking for better English education and a pathway to top Australian universities for their children.

"This is what we could expect from China's growing economy, which is at the moment is the second largest economy in the world, which actually also has a growing middle class," Dr Chen said.

Yesterday's post by Christopher Levingston which reported that a lecturer at a training course for Registered Migration Agents had informed course participants that the Migration Review Tribunal is "scary" and should therefore be avoided prompted me to do a survey of the most recent decisions of the MRT that are posted on the Austlii Website for the month of February 2015 (the decisions handed down in March 2015 have not been posted to the Austlii site yet).

While the February cases are of course just a "snapshot" of outcomes in the MRT, I am pleased to be able to report that the success rate in the Tribunal during that month was actually higher than the general 30% success rate that Chris had indicated was typical. My review indicated that there were 112 MRT decisions reported on Austlii for February 2015, and of that number a total of 53 appeals were successful! In percentage terms, there were positive outcomes in about 47% of the cases adjudicated during the month!

It is worthy of note that the reversals of the Department's decisions occurred in a wide range of cases - visitor visas, 457 visas, student visas, working holiday visas, prospective marriage visas and partner visas, among others.