Australian Signals Directorate —  the agency that advises government on cyber security — released its updated strategy guide to mitigating cyber security incidents on Monday, and it is bad news for online news sites reliant on advertising to support them. The guide states that in addition to uninstalling Adobe Flash (which should be an obvious piece of advice) agencies should block all internet ads just in case they have malicious advertising.

The Department of Health will struggle to do its job without access to that one weird trick to reduce belly fat. But don’t despair — if the agency likes a particular media outlet, “some organisations might choose to support selected websites that rely on ads for revenue by enabling just their ads and potentially risking some compromise”. How nice. We know that ads have yet to be blocked because last year, in response to a question on notice from Senate estimates, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton’s office disclosed a number of ad sites in their top website hits, alongside Dutton’s favourite “hate media” Fairfax.