A South Korean company has agreed to pay a record US$1m to decrypt files held hostage by a Linux variant of the Erebus ransomware. [ + ]

Apple retained its top spot in Gartner's list of the top 100 vendors in IT by annual revenue, with rivals Samsung and Google taking second and third place respectively. [ + ]

Critical infrastructure experts consider the utilities sector to top the list of the world's most critical industries, measured by factors including the potential societal and financial impact of an outage. [ + ]

A survey from nbn co found that 46% of Australian small businesses either already operate overseas or are planning an international expansion. [ + ]

The ACCC is soliciting volunteers for a new program designed to monitor the real-world performance of fixed nbn services to provide consumers with more transparent information. [ + ]

With a wide variety of industries now evaluating adopting blockchain distributed ledger technology, ISACA has published new guidance for companies considering taking the plunge. [ + ]

The program and list of speakers and panellists for next month's planned Data + Privacy Asia Pacific international privacy conference have just been announced. [ + ]

Criminal underground markets worldwide are offering 'Fake News as a Service', producing and disseminating misinformation for a profit, according to Trend Micro. [ + ]

Kaspersky Lab is accusing Microsoft of abusing its dominant operating system position to unfairly and aggressively promote the use of Windows Defender over third-party antivirus products. [ + ]

Fortinet's latest Global Threat Landscape report finds that the growing complexity of network environments is reducing visibility into and control over critical infrastructure. [ + ]

The National Transport Commission has been tasked with evaluating the regulatory regime that will be needed to ensure the safety of autonomous vehicles on Australian roads. [ + ]

The University of Sydney and Chinese robotics pioneer UBTECH Robotics have launched a new research centre focused on developing AI for humanoid robots. [ + ]

Optus Wholesale aims to tap into the underserved enterprise-grade Ethernet services market with new Ethernet over nbn offerings. [ + ]

Kogan.com has extended its MVNO agreement with Vodafone to cover mobile broadband as well as fixed-line nbn services. [ + ]

Fast Gigabit speeds will soon be available for eligible homes around Australia. [ + ]