Australian authorities have reported that,
after conducting an information security audit, they’ve found that more than 10 million
people have been affected by a recent data breach incident; this is equivalent
to almost 50% of the total population of the country (25 million inhabitants).
The incident was revealed by the Australian
Information Commissioner Office (ICO) in compliance with the protocol known as
“Notifiable Data Breaches” (NDB).
Although great details are not revealed, as the
cause of the incident, it was confirmed that the data breach has impacted more
than 10 million Australian citizens, a matter of considerable magnitude
compared to the largest data breach previously registered in the country, which
affected about 500,000 users.
During the last quarter, ICO received 215
notifications of data breaches, less than the 260 incidents reported in the
periods from October to December 2018 and more than 62 reported between January
and March 2019, report the Audit specialists of Security.
The information most exposed to security
incidents during the last quarter are contact details (name, phone, email
address, etc.), financial information and identity details are also an
important part of this list.
ICO identified 87 incidents reported as
“caused by malicious hacking activities” such as phishing, brute
force attacks, malware
infections, credential theft, among others, report information security audit
experts.
As for the most affected organizations are
concerned, the health sector is, again, the most affected by data breach
incidents. The list is joined by financial organizations, legal, accounting and
administrative services, academic institutions and retail businesses.
According to information security audit
specialists from the International Institute of Cyber Security (IICS), the Notifiable
Data Breaches (NDB) protocol came into force in the early 2018 and requires any
organization working under the 1998 Australian Privacy Act to notify affected people
about any incident involving their personal data/information.
