Financial Planning Assignment for MAF-255

Assessment – Limited Scope Statement of Advice

Case Scenario: Luke and Kelly Hubbard - Financial Planning

Financial Planner (FP): Luke and Kelly, thanks for coming in. I understand that you have just purchased a new home and are interested in putting together a financial plan.

Luke: That’s correct. We bought a new house about three months ago in Chelsea in Victoria. We move in tomorrow – the last day of June 2015 – we can’t wait.

FP: Congratulations – buying a home is usually the first step to wealth creation so now is a good time to assess your current financial position and to make some plans for the future.

Kelly: I must say that I am nervous about making plans for the future – so many things can change and upset the best laid plans, as they say.

FP: True but my philosophy is that a plan is much better than no plan and plans can always be updated and changed to meet new circumstances. Tell me a bit more about this house purchase.

Luke: Well the house cost $525,000. We have had to borrow $380,000. Our mortgage broker suggested that we split the loan into two. So we have a $250,000 fixed rate loan. The rate is 6.25% fixed for the first two years. The loan itself is a 25 year loan. Repayments are monthly. We wanted to fix the loan for five or ten years however our broker suggested that we initially only fix for two years. I’m still not sure if we have done the right thing. What are the advantages and disadvantages of fixing an interestrate for a shorter or longer period?

FP: Well there are a number of factors to consider when deciding on the fixed term for a loan. Rather than answer that now let me make a list of questions you want answered and I will include my answers in my report to you. What about the other $130,000 – did you borrow that a variable rate?

Kelly: Yes. It is a variable rate, 25 year loan with monthly repayments. Thanks to the last official interest rate cut the annual rate is now 4.9%.

FP: Can you tell me a bit more about your jobs and how much you earn?

Luke: I work as a lawyer for a Melbourne based legal firm. My salary package is $93,075 and this includes the standard superannuation guarantee contribution. In the last five years my salary has gone up by about 4% per annum and I think this rate of increase is likely to continue for the foreseeable future.

Kelly: I used to work as a graphic designer and web developer. Now I work from home running an online clothing business. I do have a business plan. Last financial year I had a taxable income of $57,000. My business plan projects that this income will increase by about 6% per annum. As I said earlier I get nervous about plans because so many things change but so far so good.

FP: Kelly what about contributions to superannuation.

Kelly: None I’m afraid. I do have about $10,000 in superannuation left over from my graphic designer/web developer days. I’ve never quite seen the point of locking your money away in superannuation for 30 years particularly when there are bills to pay and a house to buy.
FP: Whilst we are on the subject of superannuation Luke how much do you have in super? Luke: (Luke hands over his last superannuation statement which shows he has a balance of $56,230).

FP: Besides your house and your superannuation what other assets do you have?

Kelly: I inherited a parcel of 1000 CBA shares back in 2007 when my Uncle passed away. Back then they were valued at $56.93. I sold 500 of the shares at $92.40 on the February 9 this year to help with the purchase of the house. I still have the other 500. I guess I am going to have to pay some capital gains tax on the sale. Capital gains tax has me very confused and whilst on the subject of confusion, franking credits have me completely bamboozled. Can you give a simple and straight forward explanation – maybe an example might help.

FP: Let me add that explanation to my list.

Luke: I have suggested to Kelly that she should sell the remaining 500 CBA shares – the stock market is very volatile at the moment. What goes up must come down. I think she would be much better off putting the money in a term deposit – at least there we know it is safe and we can work out what rate of return we are getting. What do you think?

FP: I think my list just got longer.

Kelly: Besides the 500 CBA shares we have left we also have two cars worth about $32,000 in total. We also have $50,000 in a bank term deposit which is in Luke’s name and which pays 3.25% interest, and a bank transaction account in joint names which has $27,000 and which pays zero percent interest.

FP: Do you have any gold, jewellery, family heirlooms?

Luke: Not really, other than about $40,000 in house contents - that’s about it really.

FP: What about your living expenses – do you budget your living expenses?

Luke: Yes we do. To save some time I prepared this list of living expenses for 2014/15 last week. I was surprised as to where our money actually goes. (At this point Luke hands over a copy of the living expenses. See the excel spreadsheet template provided.)

FP: OK what about what you owe? I know that you have a $380,000 mortgage. Any other debts?

Luke: We both have credits cards. I have a Visa card with about $20,000 owing and Kelly has a Myers card with about $6,000 owing.

FP: Do you know what rate of interest you are paying on these cards?

Kelly: Not really – I know we should – they are just so convenient. We never really pay them off – with the interest, our payments and new purchases each month the balance owing stays fairly constant – although I have noticed the balance owing creeping up a bit each year.

FP: There are more questions that I need to ask but maybe just one more for now – do you have any personal risk insurance policies?

Kelly: Well we have health insurance if that is what you mean. I guess we also have some life insurance through our superannuation funds. The superannuation funds keep sending us letters asking us if we want to buy additional units of life insurance, whatever that means, but we just throw them in the bin. So no, we don’t have much in the way of life insurance and we don’t have any other personal risk insurance policies.

FP: Excellent. I think that is just about everything I need. Do either of you have any questions?

Luke: I am curious about how you can project so far into the future.

AFP: Well I have to use the information you have given me and I need to make assumptions, for example:

• I will assume that the inflation rate is 2.5% per annum
• I will assume that the current tax rates and levels of dividend income remain unchanged for the next five years, and
• that your expenses will rise by inflation, unless there are contracts in place,  which will affect these payments
• I will build a simple model in Excel and if you wish to change any of my assumptions it will be a simple matter of changing a cell or two and seeing what impact it has on the overall outcome.

Luke: That sounds great – I look forward to our next meeting and seeing your report.

Required:

Kelly and Luke are comfortable with their existing estate planning arrangements and also feel well informed on their social security entitlements and are therefore happy for you to exclude these two areas from the SOA you are preparing. They also acknowledge that it is too early to discuss issues related to retirement planning, and do not want the advice to be dominated by superannuation. Your SOA should acknowledge that your advice has been scaled in this way.

• Statement of Current Financial Position as at 30 June 2015. 
• A Cash Flow Statement for 2014/15 using the excel template provided. (We will assume that the surplus cash generated in 2014/5 was used to assist with the purchase of the house). 
• A projected Cash Flow Statement for each of the next 5 financial years i.e. from 2015/16 through to 2019/20 using the excel template provided. Based on the following assumptions:

1. Kelly and Luke basically maintain the same expenditure pattern as before however the costs of owning a home will replace the costs of renting a home.
2. As the cost of items purchased with the credit card increase due to inflation so too will the amount of interest increase e.g. interest on credit card debt will be expected to be $5,356 in 2015/16.
3. All surplus cash will be deposited in the joint bank account. (We recognise that this is not a realistic assumption however we are not asking you to prepare a comprehensive financial plan for the clients).
4. Based on the current level of mortgage repayments how much will be still be owing on the mortgage on the 30th of June 2020?
5. Throughout the interview you have promised to report back to Kelly and Luke on a number of issues – you should report back under the heading ‘Financial planning issues raised during the interview’.   (Maximum of 900 words)
6. If you have done your modelling correctly under 3 above Kelly and Luke should generate a cash surplus. Provide Kelly and Luke with your ‘Top 3’ prioritised recommendations (and justification for those recommendations) for how this cash surplus could be used. Broader advice is not required – this is not a comprehensive financial plan. (Maximum of 900 words)

Please read these instructions carefully:

1. Assignments that do not comply with the submission requirements will not be assessed. This is similar to HND Assignment in terms to quality check purpose.
2. This assignment can be completed as either an individual or a group of 2 or 3 students. You are responsible for forming or joining a group.
3. You may form a group with either or both campus based and cloud located students.
4. All group members receive the same mark. If a group member is inactive, then the active members of the group should remove the inactive member from their group, and notify the inactive member of his/her removal.
5. ONE electronic copy of the assignment per GROUP must be submitted via CloudDeakin by 12 midday on Monday 14 September, 2015. A penalty of one mark per day will be applied for late submissions.
6. If you choose not to submit this assessment you will score zero – the marks cannot be added to the final examination.
7. The page length is limited to 20 pages. This 20 page limit is inclusive any covering letter, table of contents, spreadsheets, and any other appendices, but exclusive of the Student ID and assumptions page as well any pages devoted to references and PDS links. All pages must have a footer which includes the student ID(s) and the page numbering e.g. page 14 of 18. Where a SOA exceeds 20 pages markers will be instructed not to consider any material beyond the 20th page.
8. The main body of the SOA should be produced in a 12 point Calibri font, with a minimum of 1.15 line spacing. This includes financial projections and appendices.  The SOA should have standard 2.5cm left and right and top and bottom margins.
9. The assignment should be directed to the clients, Kelly and Luke, in the first person. The assignment must read as if it were written by one person – if you simply divide up  the  sections  of  the plan  between  the  members  of  the  group  and then  come
10. together briefly at the end to combine the sections into one SOA it is very unlikely that you will be able to prepare the comprehensive and integrated plan required.
11. Wherever possible recommendations must be made on the basis of real products and real prices that you have researched.
12. You can assume that the clients have been provided with a Financial Services Guide (FSG) and the relevant Product Disclosure Statements (PDS). Where you recommend a product/service for which a PDS is available on the web you should reference the relevant URL. 
13. The assignment should have the following structure:

a.      The first page of the submission must include the following information:

i.  The name and student ID of each student that contributed to the assignment.

ii.  A heading ‘Assumptions’. Under this heading you should list all the assumptions that you have made in order to complete the financial plan. These assumptions should not be used to reduce the flexibility of the financial plan. Please note that this information is directed to the marker of the SOA – not the client. The client is not expected to read this first page therefore where these assumptions will affect the clients understanding of the plan they should also be restated in the appropriate section of the plan.

b.      The second page should be a cover letter to your clients.

c.       Page 3 should comprise a table of contents and executive summary.

d.      Pages 4-8 should comprise the completed Client Data Collection file (see CloudDeakin for template).

Page numbering from here on will depend on the number of pages you take to complete each task.

This is assignment help and it will guide you for the further assignment of MAF-255, to get the complete solution here

Key Points to make policy letter

With this blog you will be writing a report. It is an analytical and applied piece of writing using a supplied format that makes you analyse a policy problem in a very structured manner. The policy tripod makes you examine the economic efficiency, social effectiveness (targeting) and political feasibility of your proposal. 

The components of the policy proposal (format) must include:

1.  Title Page

2.  Letter of Transmittal

3.  One Page Summary

4.  Policy Problem Statement

5.  Policy Analysis – Using the Policy Tripod

6.  Proposed public consultation

7.  Implementation

8.  Evaluation & the specific Recommendation

9.  A separate Postscript:Policy Reflection Addendum

1.  Title Page

The title page of your policy proposal should include the usual details and a simple one or two line title for your policy proposal.

2.  Letter of Transmittal

Identify your fictional position, your fictional organisation and to whom you are writing this policy for. For instance: you may be in the public service, writing for the Minister. Your letter of transmittal identifies you, who you are writing the proposal for, and why. It is brief – two to three paragraphs. Its purpose is to indicate who specifically is your decision maker (by name and title): why it has been written, and what it recommends. There should be no detail.

3.  One-Page Summary of your Policy Proposal

You succinctly identify the issue (defining the problem, explaining why it is an issue and locating it within the context of related policy) and the recommendation – summarising your analysis using the policy tripod. You may use bullet points, headings and sub-headings. You should be able to say what your proposal is in one or two sentences.

If you cannot do this – it is not clear in your mind. Indicate exactly what your policy will do in relation to a specific policy problem.

4.  Problem Statement & the specific Recommendation

This is where you define the problem you are addressing and say what your recommendation is. You may state options – but you must indicate (up the front) your specific recommendation. Analysis of the values and principles underlying the policy proposal – this will be important – so that the policy can be placed within the context of the government’s approach to governing. It goes to the heart of what a government (or an organization) is and is not about. Although the exercise is fictional it is to be made as realistic as possible, with your policy analysis based on real research and evidence. This means that the values and policies of current political parties, governments and oppositions need to be taken into account. Do not waste space with pages of background information – a page of background is enough.

5.  Policy Analysis – Using the Policy Tripod

This is the section that should be the bulk (space and words) of your assignment. You will analyse your policy and its context (e.g. in relation to existing policies, politics and programs); assessment of relevant research (both Australian and international) that may inform policy direction. You must interrogate your policy using the policy tripod:

• Economic efficiency
• Social effectiveness (including social equity considerations)
• Political feasibility (including stakeholder analysis & trade-offs)

The policy must pass the test of this tripod – it must be economically efficient (the cost and revenue sources declared), socially effective (that it targets the specific group or behaviour that requires attention, and leakage is minimised and it is here that you can raise social equity and justice issues and where relevant, Australia’s responsibilities under international Human Rights Treaties) and politically feasible (it can gain enough support by key stakeholders to be passed). This will mean trade-offs between economic efficiency and social effectiveness to gain political support. Gathering coalitions of support and how to handle opponents is therefore important.

In the Political feasibility section there is to be a stakeholder analysis: Identification of the major stakeholders and their stances on the issue (e.g. pressure groups, peak bodies such as ACOSS, political parties, citizen advocates, international watch dogs etc.). Don’t forget other government departments and other levels of government – they are also (important) stakeholders. What is their relative power? Are they prepared to use it on this issue? Who is likely to be neutral or support/oppose the proposal? How can a winning coalition be put together? How can opposition be sidelined or at least contained?

6.  Plans for public consultation

What methods of public or community engagement or public consultation need to be specified and justified (drawing on unit materials as to methods). Will you use deliberative democracy? How much credence will be given to community sentiment and by what methods?

7.  Implementation

Identification of the institutional arrangements relevant to the policy area and assessment of effectiveness – the current law, are changes to legislation needed? Can it be done by a regulation? Are there any impediments? Any jurisdictional or constitutional problems ie are there Commonwealth-State relations implications? How might the policy be implemented? What tools will be used? What would an implementation plan look like? This is a very minor but important part of the assignment.

8.  Evaluation

How might the policy be evaluated? How do we know ‘what works’? And for whom? Is it vaule for money? Who should do the evaluation? This is a minor part of the assignment – a paragraph will do, but nonetheless important. Please do not exceed the word limit in this assignment (3000 words). This also means that you must not hide words in excess of the word limit in appendices or footnotes.

9.  Postscript:Policy Reflection Addendum

in a paragraph, you need to reflect on the policy analysis issues that are most pressing in your proposal and give reasons why this is the case. This means drawing on your unit materials. For example, this might include reflections on power and interests, implementation, public value etc. and is a vehicle for you to demonstrate your knowledge of key debates/resources/thinkers. This links the policy analysis work you have done to your assignment area and the issues raised.

Corporate Finance Assignment

Bongrain, based in France, is one of the world leading dairy companies. According to figures supplied by the International Dairy Federation (IDF), Bongrain is in the top 20 global dairy companies with a 2014 net sales of approximately 4.4 billion Euros. The company currently employs 19,301 people and its flagship products are specialties cheeses that are sold worldwide. Bongrain has a strong presence in Europe, Africa, North and South America and some Asian countries. Nevertheless, Bongrain is yet to penetrate the Australasian market. Its strategy to do so is to buy a controlling stake in a local dairy company that allows Bongrain quick access to the Australian dairy market. Bongrain aims to acquire a local company that has a strong market standing as well as a solid financial position. The in-house financial analyst team at Bongrain identified two Australian companies that can serve this purpose: Bega Cheese (ASX code: BGA) and Warrnambool Cheese and Butter (ASX code: WCB). Nevertheless, due to its lack of local knowledge, Bongrain has secured the service of Crescendo Partners in assisting Bongrain with the potential buy-in.

You are working as a consultant at Crescendo Partners and you report directly to the Corporate Finance director. You and your team have been asked by the Director to prepare a report to Bongrain that contains the following information

1.  An overview of the Australian dairy industry and the relative strength (i.e market share) of the two companies identified above.
2. Detailed financial analyses (liquidity, profitability and capital structure) of each of the three companies using current and historical financial reports in the last 3 years. Based on these analysis, please provide a justified recommendation to Bongrain as to which company would best serve Bongrain’s strategic direction.
3. Detailed calculations of the intrinsic value of the company that you recommend in Part 2 using one or more valuation techniques.

The report should follow a proper format with an executive summary followed by sub-sections addressing the points above.

Note that the aforementioned Australian dairy companies are listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). As a result, their financial reports are publicly available on the companies’ respective websites. Further company research can also be accomplished through databases such as Connect4 or FinAnalysis accessible through the library website.

Marketing Analytic Assignment

Background

Alibaba’s IPO (initial public offering) is currently the world’s largest initial stock offering,   raising $25 billion for the company. Alibaba, a Chinese e-commerce firm, made its stock market debut at the New York Stock Exchange on 19 September 2014, with an initial offering price of $68 per share and closed at $94.89, representing an increase of 38%. This big first-day pop in the share price prompted its underwriters to exercise the option to purchase an additional 48 million shares, taking the total number of shares sold to 368 million (Chen et al., 2014b). Alibaba’s IPO has boosted the net worth of its founder and chairman, Jack Ma, to over $16 billion, making him the richest man in China (Chen et al., 2014a).

Questions

Inspired by Alibaba’s IPO success, Jeff Parker, the CEO of Dynamic Technology Solutions, a private internet-related service company, is planning to raise equity through an initial public offering. Jeff is going to propose the plan to the company’s major shareholders, but worries about resistance from some of the shareholders, who are known to be conservative. He remembered from his MBA finance course that many IPOs in the US were issued at prices substantially below the first day closing market prices. However, he was not sure whether the short-run IPO under-pricing phenomenon exists in the Australian stock market. Jeff asks you,  the Chief Financial Analyst, to investigate and prepare a report on the following issues.

1.    Short-run IPO under-pricing is a well-known phenomenon in the US stock market. But is this phenomenon unique to US IPO firms only? In other words, does this phenomenon perhaps also exist in the Australian stock market? To answer this question, you need to investigate the short- run IPO performance in the Australia stock market. To measure the short-run IPO performance, you will have to calculate and analyse the initial return of IPOs that were listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) from 1 January 2012 to 30 June 2013. The initial return (Ritter   1991, p. 7) equals:

[ (The last trading price at the end of the first day of trading – initial offering price) / initial offering price ] * 100.

Download the list of IPO firms with their issue price and the first trading day closing price from Morningstar DatAnalysis Premium. The initial offering price is called the issue price in DatAnalysis. Ignore those IPO without issue price in the spreadsheet downloaded from DatAnalysis. Also, make sure you select the adjusted price for the closing price. Describe the sample selection process.

Critically analyse the results of your calculation using the entire sample and describe the insights that could be gained from the calculation. For instance, you could describe the results of the analysis using simple descriptive statistics, such as mean, median, etc., or the frequency distribution.

Next, categorise your data/calculations into groups using three variables (e.g. industry) and describe what additional insights you could gain from the analysis. You will decide which grouping variables you will use and provide justification(s) for your selection. You should also  list any assumptions made in the analysis.

Wherever appropriate, the summary of your analysis and/or results (e.g., in a brief table, chart or graph) should be presented in the main text of your report. However, the data, detailed calculation/analysis and results should be presented in the Excel spreadsheet, which must be embedded in the Appendix section of your report. Note that 2 marks are allocated for  organising and presenting the calculation/analysis and results in the embedded Excel Spreadsheet and report. In addition, you must properly reference (Harvard style) all sources of information   used.   

2.    Select and discuss two theories/propositions that in your opinion provide the most plausible explanations for the occurrence of short-run IPO under-pricing in the US and/or Australian stock market. Perform some background research and use the findings to justify your selection. You are expected to use at least two academic references for this task. You may use articles from academic journals or textbooks, but not Wikipedia, Investopedia or other non-academic  Internet websites.  You must properly reference (Harvard style) all sources of information  used.

3.    Pick one stock market from the Asia-Pacific1 region (excluding the Australian stock Market). Perform some background research and then describe one study that empirically investigates the existence of short-term IPO under-pricing in the selected stock market. To answer this question, you are expected to describe the study (including the research methodology used to examine the existence of short-term IPO under-pricing in the selected stock market) and the empirical results on the degree of short-term IPO under-pricing, and discuss the reason(s) proposed by the study to explain the existence of under-pricing in relation to the two theories discussed in Question (2). In attempting this task, you are expected to use at least three academic references. You may use articles from academic journals or textbooks, but not Wikipedia, Investopedia or other non-academic Internet websites. You must properly reference (Harvard style) all sources of  information used.                                                                    

Assignment on Banking Security

Assignment Completion Method:        

Your assignment will involve two important phases, which will require you to:

Part A:

Answer the following questions:

1. Question 1: What is a Firewall and how do they protect a business? (~250 Words)
2. Question 2: Phishing is a type of scam. What is the purpose of phishing emails? List and describe four basic steps can you use to avoid phishing scams? (~250 Words)
3. Question 3: Discuss the relationship between surveillance and privacy. Identify and describe what safeguards exist to protect the individual? (~250 Words)
4. Question 4: Describe ‘social commerce’ and discuss three potential benefits to customers and 3 potential benefits to the business. (~250 Words)

Part B:

Use the Toulmin’s Model of Argument to analyse the supplied Assignment Case Study (see the Assignment Case Study section below) and provide your opinion on the strength or weakness of the argument with relation to the Claim that we have provided.  (~ 600 words).

You MUST use these instructions to complete the ‘Your Opinion’ section of Part B:

To apply the model to test the validity/strength of a CLAIM the reader must examine each sentence in the article and categorise them as a Toulmin element or as an unnecessary extra e.g. ‘opinion’, ‘hearsay’, ‘definitions’ etc. Once all sentences have been categorised then the elements should be examined in sequence.

1. What is the CLAIM? We have provided this for you already.
2. Is there any DATA to support the CLAIM? If so how much? The quantity and quality of DATA can suggest the strength of the CLAIM.
3. Is there a WARRANT (Explicit or Implicit)? Explicit WARRANTS are often stronger because the author can direct the reader to accept the CLAIM. Implicit WARRANTS leave the reader’s opinion open to interpretation and this may go against the author’s  intended purpose.
4. Is there BACKING? If so how much? The quantity and quality of BACKING can suggest strength of the WARRANT and thus may increase the strength of the CLAIM.
5. Is there a REBUTTAL? The quantity and scope of the REBUTTAL may reduce the strength of the CLAIM and thus dissuade the reader’s acceptance of the CLAIM.
6. Is there a QUALIFIER? If so, to what extent does it reduce the scope of the CLAIM because this will impact on the strength of the CLAIM?

Your Opinion – this is a personal perception based on your interpretation of the article. The presence, quality and quantity of the different Toulmin elements must be applied to make this critical assessment.

Learning Objectives:

In the process of this assessment task you will:

Gain an understanding of:

·                     Protecting and managing business information resources from unauthorised online      access;                         

·                     The deceptive aspects and mitigation strategies to counter against socially engineered online scams;

·                     The fundamental counter‐balance between surveillance and individual privacy;

·                     The benefits of a ‘social commerce’ approach for customers and business.

·                     Gain a fundamental understanding of Toulmin’s Model of Argument;

·                     Learn to apply the argument model for critical analysis of a case study; and,

·                     Demonstrate your critical thinking skills as applied to the argument Claim.

Assignment Case Study:

Claim: >>> Australian anticrime authorities can’t protect Australian businesses against cybercrime

Internet‐enabled crime is the greatest challenge to law‐enforcement in the 21st century, particularly in terms of differing trans‐border jurisdictions, the risk to our national security, privacy, business data and the potential impact it could have on the economy overall. Hence it seems surprising of the 20,329 staff members in the New South Wales Police Force there are only 95 working in the cyber and fraud division. Based on this you would have to ask the question; Is Detective Superintendent Arthur Young, Commander of the NSW Fraud and Cyber Crime Squad, equipped to deal with threat from internet‐related crime?

Young acknowledges, "There's no commander that would say they've got enough resources to combat this issue, but that's something we're working towards.” Young also declared "I don't think you can ever be fully prepared however, we've got some good systems in place to do what we want in terms of mostly identifying and preventing a lot of the cybercrime." The NSW Crime Commission's latest annual report states that uncrackable smart phones are hindering criminal investigations with at least two murder investigations in Sydney recently being affected.

In response to the technological issues Superintendent Young also usually seeks collaboration from private companies, such as Apple and Google. Young would also like to see the punishments associated with cybercrime increased to match other crimes such as robbery because currently they are disproportionate. Given the Internet is borderless, transnational crime is also something Young has to deal with. When it comes to solving trans‐border cybercrime, the NSW Police has a good relationship with the FBI, US Homeland Security and Britain's Scotland Yard. Yet, relationships with some other overseas anticrime agencies need improving if we are to be more effective in combatting trans‐border cybercrime.

With respect to local cybercrime, Superintendent Young says advancements are constantly being made to prevent cybercrime hence we are not losing the race just keeping pace! Young further hopes that sometime in the near future business organisations will be required by law to divulge publicly if they have had a data breach noting “if companies don't report breaches, how do we know it's actually occurring?" Alarmingly, Young said "I think one of the challenging things for law enforcement in NSW or globally is the fear of investigating cybercrime or fraud‐related crime because it is difficult to prove so it is often ignored."

"Dates of births are one of the greatest sought‐after pieces of personal information that ID criminals are looking for. Robert Chan from the National Crime Authority (NCA) acknowledged community education on cybercrime avoidance performed by various anticrime bodies is helping to reduce cybercrime occurrence. Mr Chan also noted at the recent Australian ‘Unity Against Cybercrime Conference’ (UACC) a working party of anticrime organisation heads was established to develop a unified approach for the detection of and the defence of Australian Businesses against cybercrime.