THE NEWS WRAP: Vodafone denies customers’ personal details are available on the internet

Vodafone has denied that its customers’ personal details are available on the internet, despite a major security breach of its system.

The telco says that it has reset all of its passwords following a “one-off” breach of the web-based portal that stores details of its customers.

According to reports, details of customers’ credit card numbers, home addresses and driver’s licence numbers were leaked onto the internet. However, Vodafone said that these details haven’t been made publicly available.

Post-Christmas sales disappoint

There has been a downbeat reaction by retailers to post-Christmas sales figures, despite a 3% increase on the same period a year previously. The first week of post-Christmas sales totalled nearly $7 billion, however the Australian Retailers Association said that this rise was disappointing compared to the 5% rises seen in previous years. 

Small retailers join GST fight

A lobby group for small retailers has joined the campaign to impose GST on overseas online purchases. The National Retailers Association, which represents 3,700 businesses, said that it has joined the ‘Fair Imports Alliance’ so that the debate wasn’t dominated by large retailers, led by Harvey Norman, Myer and David Jones.

WA small firms feel wage pinch

Small businesses in Western Australia are finding it almost impossible to hire and retain skilled workers due to the mining boom, according to a report in the Australian Financial Review. Wage pressures caused by the resources industry is being blamed for a severe lack of employees prepared to work in the state’s small enterprises.