Hackers targeting up to 500 tax file numbers a day; Australia Post pours $1 million into startup accelerator program: Midday Roundup

The tax file numbers of up to 500 Australians are being targeted each day by a group of identity thieves, according to Fairfax.

Federal police are reportedly searching for the hackers who are attempted to breach payroll systems to access personal details of workers. The information is then used to lodge false tax returns.

However, the Australian Tax Office has told Fairfax its systems have not been breached and the false tax returns are originating from data that has been accessed from other sources.

“The majority of refunds that are claimed fraudulently are claimed using illegally obtained personal information and the ATO reminds people to be vigilant with their online security,” the tax office said.

Australia Post pours $1 million into startup accelerator

Australia Post has poured $1 million into the University of Melbourne’s accelerator program for emerging technology startups.

For the three-year partnership Australia Post says it has put aside $20 million to help support ecommerce businesses.

Australia Post’s managing director, Ahmed Fahour, said the $20 million fund will aim to accelerate emerging businesses all over the country.

“We will work with our people, our customers, the community and our partners to identify new opportunities and emerging, disruptive ecommerce businesses that we can accelerate,” Fahour said.

“We will use the $20 million capital fund, which with the success I expect could grow to more than $100 million over coming years, to directly invest in great ecommerce businesses with ideas that will improve the lives of our customers.”

Shares down on open

Aussie shares are trading lower this morning due to ongoing weakness in commodity prices.

Ric Spooner, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, said today’s trading will be a “session of nervous consolidation”.

“While Wednesday’s solid upward momentum in US markets stalled, it was a better effort than the sharp reversal in our market yesterday,” Spooner said.

“Local markets therefore go into this morning’s session having sharply underperformed [compared to] the US over the last two days.”

The S&P/ASX 200 benchmark was down 41.5 points, falling 0.79% to 5225.4 points at 11:44 AEST. On Thursday, the Dow Jones closed 23.72 points lower, down 0.13% to 17,755.8 points.