This warning message reached thousands of Australian citizens
Cybersecurity and digital forensics specialists
from the International Institute of Cyber Security have reported that a hacker
managed to send a message to thousands of people after an emergency text
messaging, email and phone calls service in Australia
was compromised.
The message, sent from the Early Warning Network (EWN) alert service last Friday, warned
users: “The EWN platform has been hacked. Your personal data is unsecured.
We’re trying to solve any inconvenience”. In the end, the message included a
link to a technical support web page, as well as a support email address.
After conducting the first investigations of
the incident, EWN cybersecurity team concluded that a hacker got access to their alert systems, sending
the message to the contacts stored in the company’s database. “The message was
sent by email, SMS, and through phone calls,” the company’s official statement
mentions.
“When detecting the incident, our cybersecurity
team quickly identified the attack and managed to shut down our systems,
limiting the scope of the attack. For our bad fortune, the attacker managed to
access a small sample of our database, so the message was received by thousands
of Australian citizens.
In its official statement, Early Warning
Network asked affected users to delete any messages of this kind, as well as
not to click on the attached links.
Kerry Plowright, the company manager,
subsequently stated that, according to EWN internal investigation, the attack
was originated in Australia and is related to “some details of compromised
logins”. The company’s manager also notes that “this incident did not
compromise anyone’s personal information”.
“The goal of the person or persons who sent
this message was to damage this company, is a malicious action,” says
Plowright.
The company said that its alert system worked
regularly during the incident, and joint work has been undertaken with the
Australia Cybersecurity Centre and law enforcement agencies.
A couple of months ago some Australia councils
(such as Queensland and Gladstone) were severely affected by wildfires, so
these communities have used this kind of warning systems to prevent further
risks and losses in the event of a natural disaster.
Chris Trevor, Gladstone’s mayor, believes the
consequences of the cyberattack could be very dangerous. “We are really
concerned that residents will stop trusting this early alert service, cancel
their subscriptions and no longer use this tool that has helped us save lives”.