Developments

Customised wheelchairs and mobility products that were once only available to elite athletes are becoming more accessible to people with disabilities with increased awareness accelerating a growing market, according to wheelchair basketball star Matt McShane. McShane, the Gold Coast-based operator of Proactive Mobility, said the trend was helping change lives. He has combined his industrial design qualifications from Griffith University on the Gold Coast with his lived experience as a person with a disability to create the business. “I help people get fitted in the right chairs and equipment. It’s an enjoyable thing, as I have first-hand experience of how a sports chair can really change a person’s life,” McShane said. McShane is in training with the Australian men’s wheelchair basketball team, the Rollers, for the 2024 Paris Paralympics. The four-time Paralympic medallists finished fifth at Tokyo last year and have vowed to be back among the medals in Paris. McShane said the combination of tennis star and disability advocate Dylan Alcott being named as 2022 Australian of the Year, and the increased interest in Australia’s Paralympic success was helping drive disability awareness. “Any awareness is good, and it is certainly getting much better,” McShane said. “Technology has also caught up a bit and everyone can have some sort of access to this cool equipment now, not just necessarily the top tier athletes.  The same chair that I take to the Paralympic games, you can use at a social level.” McShane said mobility equipment could have a major impact on quality of life for a person with a disability. “When I first got into a chair you were handcuffed to a few different brands and different suppliers,” he said. “People now have more options to choose. With disability, everyone is slightly different as no two injuries are the same. “Customisation is […]

Article by Robert Nobilo, Regional Director ANZ at Virsec Cyber-attacks continue to be an increasing concern for every industry. But recently they’re becoming a bigger issue for the manufacturing industry than most others. Cyber criminals frequently target manufacturing operations for their ransomware attacks. According to PwC’s Cyber Threats 2020: A Year in Retrospect report, the manufacturing sector and retail sectors shared the dubious honour of being the industries most targeted by ransomware: each accounted for 17 per cent of the total, well ahead of the second sector, technology, media and telecommunications with 10 per cent. The PwC report detailed one ransomware attack on a multinational manufacturer based in New Zealand; “The attack saw the vast majority of its systems encrypted and rendered inoperable, breaking its supply chain, halting global manufacturing and distribution, and putting its banking covenants at risk.” Another manufacturer hit by a cyber attack was local brewer Lion Australia, which also produces dairy products. In June 2020, it was hit by two ransomware attacks within 10 days, forcing it to halt beer production. The attackers were reported to be demanding a payment in excess of $AUD 1 million. Earlier this year, JBS USA Holdings, the world’s largest meat company, was hit by a ransomware attack and, as a result, paid a $11 million ransom. JBS Australia, Australia’s largest meat and food processing company, was disrupted by this attack and forced to close 47 meat processing plants in Australia.   With these and other successful attacks, manufacturing will continue to be a high value target of ransomware gangs. The costly impact of ransomware on manufacturing The manufacturing sector is particularly sensitive to the impacts of ransomware and other cyber-attacks on two counts. Firstly, any disruption of day-to-day operations would likely leave a manufacturer unable to meet production demands, resulting […]