The Livestock and Rural Transporters Association of Victoria (LRTAV) had their annual conference in Shepparton on August 16 and 17.

The conference was held at Move (Museum Of Vehicle Evolution) with Robert DiPierdomenico as the Master of Ceremonies.

The two-day conference involved the election of office bearers and the reinstatement of Russell Borchard as president.

In Mr Borchard’s president’s report he discussed some of the issues that the LRTAV had been working on over the last year. Those included:

•            the expanding Performance Based Standards (PBS) and the High Productivity Freight Vehicles (HPFV) network and it’s development nationwide.

•            Safety

•            Biosecurity

•            Truck wash

•            Effluent management

•            Educational pathways for young drivers

•            National Ramp Standards

•            Driver shortages

•            Business Compliance

Mr Borchard explained that there had been an enormous amount of time spent liaising with many government departments and considerable progress was being made.

He particularly mentioned how the LRTAV was now called on by these departments for input into decision making at a time when our industry is under enormous pressure with increasing payloads, driver shortages, sub standard amenities and roads.

“With all these challenges will come opportunities,” and finished with the LRTAV motto – Together, we are stronger.

The 2024 Young driver Award Winner was presented to Caleb Baldock of Mibus Transport Dimboola. Caleb is 28 years of age and does everything from carting livestock to oversize work and maintaining business compliance permits and records.

The award is sponsored by Griffith Goodall Insurance.

Doctor Dennis Desmond’s presentation on ‘Cyber Security,’ was both interesting and alarming.

Dr Desmond has spent most of his working life in counter-intelligence - first as a U.S. special Agent, then a special agent with the FBI and with the Defence Intelligence Agency.

He is also a veteran of Desert Shield, Desert Storm and served in Iraq.

He is currently a researcher at the Centre for Human Factors and Sociotechnical Systems on darknet interventions.

Dr Desmond explained that all the increases in technology, there are sensors everywhere now, from car park lights indicating empty parks to road sensors recording traffic details, to compliance monitors in trucks and other vehicles, are all making us vulnerable. They are all collecting data.

The shift to electric vehicles or automative driving, the using of artificial intelligence are all fair game for network hackers.

Dr Desmond explained that the objective of some foreign entities was to create chaos.

The easiest way to do that – is to infiltrate computer systems. We are such a regulated society that if the traffic lights were to be compromised, would anyone know how to cross an intersection?

“We are the weakest link in the line - we accidently open a link from a so-called friend, or we forward an email - whether that is a joke, a picture or a software app. Malware can be attached to any of these emails and just follows a pathway deeper into systems,” he said.

“I do a lot of research into the darknet.

“I use Sarah (a young, attractive woman) because people are going to want to communicate with Sarah – she has been involved in this research since 2017. I look specifically on dark web market places where your data or my data is sold.

“A dark web market place looks just like a mall - you can buy drugs, guns and even a hit man or indeed a driver’s licence and your private details for identity theft.

“I have had five breaches on my social security number – and I am a cyber security expert and I still can’t keep my data safe.

“Now, you might wonder why the government doesn’t just shut them down. The reason is that most of these sites are hosted in Russia and China, and our government is not able to access them.

“If a Russian steals an Australian’s data - do you think the Russian government is going to mind? ‘No.’ Anything an adversarial government can do to disrupt our security - they are ok with.”

The most common currency used on the dark web is bitcoin or crypto currency.

“Be aware of cloned websites - there may be a great product advertised on Facebook, and you think you must have it, so you purchase it, but it’s a cloned site.

“It looks just like the real one but there will be just one letter or number changed in the web address to the original one - they copy the entire site right down to the deposit information - and it’s too late now because you have sent them money.

“There has been a rise in software scams that can remove clothing from an image and substitute it with a naked body. It’s being used now by school kids to harass other students.

“Have you had a phone call from the Australian Tax Office (ATO) stating that you are in arrears?

“Thank them and hang up.

“Then call the ATO on the number listed on the website to check if they called you.”

Dr Desmond recommended using store value cards or cash cards for on-line purchases.

He mentioned the Linkt scam emails saying that your Linkt account was overdue.

“If you got caught but used a cash card, then the damage is much smaller than allowing access to your entire savings,” Dr Desmond said.

Consider multiple email accounts.

Multi factor identification is also recommended.

Place a credit ban on your accounts so that no additional loans can be taken out without you being notified.

Limit personal information - stop putting all your information on your social media platforms - it can be used.

Don’t put photos of kids on social media celebrating birthdays - that name now has a birthdate.

I can honestly say that the entire room was captivated but deeply concerned.

At the end of the presentation, we were unsure as to whether we should clap because we were all so alarmed at the information.

To be informed is to be forewarned.