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Business Insurance Specialists Pty Ltd

Business Insurance Specialists Pty Ltd is a business insurance broker providing insurance and risk advice to individuals, families, small business and corporate.

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Data Breach

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List of Data Breaches in Australia and Overseas

A list of major Data breaches in Australia is provide below. This can assist people to gain a better understanding of the level of cyber security breaches that are occurring in the public domain. Currently, Australian Cyber Security legislation is targeted on businesses with annual turnover of more than $3,000,000. With some types of industries all business is subject to this legislation irrespective of turnover.

We believe all Australian businesses need to be aware of, and familiar with the types of incidents that can occur.

Our current Australian Date Breach list for 2020 is provided below.

August, 2020 Expand
Australia
  • Hackers publish Australian universities proctoru data
    • Hackers have published a database of 440,000 ProctorU user records. The data relates to people who were registered as users of ProctorU’s services on or before 2014.
  • Data#3 hit by network cyber security incident
    • ARNnet
    • ASX
  • Huawei exposes PNG security weaknesses
    • Australia slams Huawei for ‘security vulnerabilities’ in PNG data centre
    • Chinese-built data centre in PNG exposed weakness
    • China refutes austs claims against Huawei
  • Regis Healthcare
    • Regis Healthcare (ASX:REG) Response to Cyber Incident
       
Global
  • Makeup brand avon leaks 19 million records
    • Data leak exposed more than 19 million private records that were found on a publicly accessible database
  • Twitter Hack
    • 3 charged in massive Twitter hack, Bitcoin scam
July, 2020 Expand
Australia
  • MyGov hacked
    • Hacked: Thousands of MyGov accounts for sale on dark web
  • Western Australia Privacy Breach
    • 'Unforgivable': The privacy breach that exposed sensitive details of WA's virus fight
  • St Kilda Players medical files
    • St Kilda players' medical files stolen in car smash-and-grab
       
Global
  • WordPress Plugin vulnerability
    • Thousands of websites at risk from critical WordPress plugin vulnerability
  • Data Leak
    • More than 30,000 LPM Property Management New Zealand clients' personal data available
  • Liveauctioneers
    • Confirms Breach After Records Posted for Sale
  • Ransomware Gangs
    • Go (Lady) Gaga for Data Breaches
  • Google backed Dunzo admits to Data Breach
    • The incident reportedly exposed users’ phone numbers and email addresses.
June, 2020 Expand
Australia
  • China believed to be behind major cyber attack on Australian governments and businesses
  • Activewear retailer hacked, data now on the dark web
  • Lion: Ransomware attack causing significant problems
Global
  • Viva Republica in hot water over unauthorized payments on its fintech platform
May, 2020 Expand
Australia

Government investigates data-breach revealing details of 774,000 migrants.

April, 2020 Expand
 Australia
  • Department of Home Affairs
    • Home affairs data breach may have exposed personal details of 700,000 migrants
       
Global
  • Zoom
    • Over 500,000 Zoom accounts sold on hacker forums, the dark web
  • UK Car Licenses
    • Exposed 8.6 million car licenses open publicly after breach seen on England's traffic database
    • Nine million logs of Brits' road journeys spill onto the internet from password-less number-plate camera dashboard
    • Security breach in a traffic camera database exposes information about 8.6 million car trips tied to individual license plates
March, 2020 Expand
 Australia
  • Alinta Energy
    • Accused of putting customers information at risk
  • Australian Defence Military
    • Australian Defence Military Database Shut Down amid hack fears
  • Facebook
    • OAIC Australian watchdog sues Facebook over Cambridge Analytica breach
    • Australian privacy watchdog takes Facebook to court over customer data breaches
    • Facebook faces 1bn fine for breach of Australian privacy law over Cambridge Analytica scanda
  • Melbourne TAFE
    • Melbourne TAFE data breach exposes 55k student, staff files
    • 55,000 files accessed Melbourne polytechnic data breach
    • Australia Data Breach 90.000 staff, students, suppliers impacted at Melbourne polytechnic
    • IT institute discloses major data breach
  • Un-named Multinational
    • Cyber hackers demand $30M from major international company with office in Perth
February, 2020 Expand
Australia
  • Yarra Trams
    • Commuters' email addresses exposed - Data Breach
  • Defence Force
    • Fears private details of Defence Force members compromised in database hack
    • Australia took a sensitive military recruiting database offline for 10 days in February following concerns it may have been compromised
       
Global
  • MGM Resorts International
    • MGM sued over data breach relating to 10.6 million guests having personal information published on a hacking forum site
  • Total Quality Logistics (TQL)
    • USA Freight Firm has carrier client’s  banking information compromised 
  • Wyze Labs
    • Smart Security camera firm has data breach that exposed information of 2.4 million customer
  • Slickwraps Data Breach
    • Slickwrap user email, name and actual address information of 857,000 accounts stole
  • Chinese military theft
    • Feedback on the astonishing Equifax case from 2017 where the details of 145 million in USA were stolen. Four members of China’s military were charged with the theft, which flouted an agreement between China and USA in 2015 to refrain from hacking and cyberattacks.
  • Sports retail chain data breach
    • Sports retail chain leaks personal information of 123 million people
January, 2020 Expand
Australia
  • Western Australia P&N Bank
    • A data breach effecting potentially 96,000 customers 
  • Toll Holdings
    • Australia’s most significant and crippling cyber attack to date, has caused major long-term issues.  
  • Clearview AI
    • Australian start-up facial recognition firm suffers data breach that exposed entire customer list  
  • Unnamed Aussie Sales Company
    • Contractor accessed servers without authorisation
       
Global
  • Microsoft Data Leak
    • The records contained logs of conversations between Microsoft support agents and customers from all over the world including Australia, spanning a 14-year period from 2005 to December 2019.

What are some examples of major Australian Data Breach incidents?

Nova Data Breach occurred where more than 250,000 listeners had personal information including addresses and birth dates disclosed.

The Canva data breach occurred where a hacker acquired the details of 139 million of their users – none of the data provided financial information.

The ANU data breach was performed by an unknown hacker who was able to obtain HR, Financial and Student information of the university.

The Landmark White data breach happened when  137,500 documents relating to valuations were leaked on the dark web. An experienced IT contractor who had previously worked 12 years for the firm was the culprit.

NAB data breach was where approximately 13,000 customers had information such as date of birth, drivers license number, name and contact accidentally shared with two data service companies.

What are some examples of major Global Data Breach incidents?

In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in the level of Cyber incidents. Major companies are every day being attacked, with no company immune to loss even with the best preparation. Some of these losses are detailed below, where records were lost, Data being stolen or lost is a major risk.

  • Ancestry
  • Ashley Madison
  • Sony
  • Canva
  • Equifax
  • Linkedin
  • MyHeritage

How a business can reduce likelihood of a Data Breach?

To minimize your loss, a business should consider having a strong password policy including using a password manager, educate staff, use modern software and hardware, and put in place a Cyber Risk Management and Response plan. This plan can be done in collaboration with your IT service provider. You may wish to also bring in an external auditor or risk consultant in order to ensure they meet your requirements as well. In addition to having a plan, insurance is available to fully protect your business and personal data,and ensure continuity of the business if an event strikes.

Contact Business Insurance Specialists Pty Ltd to obtain a quote for Cyber insurance.

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