THE NEWS WRAP: Yahoo! investigates security breach

Yahoo! is investigating reports of a security breach that may have exposed nearly half a million users’ email addresses and passwords.

The company is looking into “claims of a compromise of Yahoo! user IDs” but has not disclosed the size of the reported breach or how it may have happened.

Caroline MacLeod-Smith, Yahoo’s head of consumer PR in the United Kingdom, says she cannot immediately provide any more detail on the breach because it is still being investigated.

ASIC to clamp down on dodgy directors

Corporate regulators will clamp down on bosses who try to run away from their responsibilities to workers when companies fail.

John Price, of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, says ASIC will take extra steps to ensure directors are not able to deregister companies that owe workers entitlements such as pay and redundancy payouts.

The announcement comes as unions and employers clash over the future of the Federal Government safety net protecting workers’ entitlements – the General Employee Entitlements and Redundancy Scheme.

Call for more competition-friendly IR laws

Productivity Commission chairman Gary Banks has suggested that Labor’s Fair Work Act be included in a sweeping review of laws that restrict competition.

According to Banks, the government should appoint the commission or another body to recommend changes to legislation, similar to a review conducted from 1996 until 2005, under the national competition policy.

Areas he is concerned about include pharmacies, taxis, coastal shipping, the national broadband network and the labour market.

Overnight

The Australian dollar has pulled back a bit overnight after dropping to its lowest level in two weeks, amid falls across global stock markets and concerns about Spain’s borrowing costs.

At 6.30am, the Australian dollar was trading at US101.40 cents, down from US101.64 cents on Thursday.