The Smith Family hit by cyber attack, joining a growing list of targets including Medibank and Optus

The children’s charity is the latest high-profile victim after incidents affecting Optus and Medibank.

Australian children’s charity The Smith Family has reported a cyber attack and says the information of some of the charity’s supporters, including phone numbers and some credit card data may have been taken.

Chief executive Doug Taylor said on Tuesday that a Smith Family team member’s email account was temporarily accessed by an unauthorised party in a bid to steal funds.

“The Smith Family recently experienced a cyber incident where attempts were made to steal The Smith Family funds. We promptly acted and the attempts were unsuccessful,” Mr Taylor said in a statement.

“We immediately took steps to secure our systems. We then commenced an investigation of the incident and engaged specialist cyber security experts to understand what happened. We have also taken steps to further strengthen our systems.”

Mr Taylor said supporters’ information including names, phone numbers, and the first and last four digits of a credit or debit card used to donate may have been accessed. Email addresses and donation amounts may also have been taken.

“The Smith Family can confirm no middle digits, expiry date or CVV numbers were accessed as The Smith Family does not store that information in its systems,” Mr Taylor said.

“The Smith Family also does not request, collect or hold personal identity documents such as passports or drivers’ licences of our supporters, as these are not required to process their generous donations.

“The data accessed in itself cannot be used to make fraudulent purchases.

“While there is no current evidence of misuse of any individual’s personal information, we are informing individuals about the incident and providing simple steps to protect their information and avoid any potential scams.”

A Smith Family team member’s email account was temporarily accessed by an unauthorised party in a bid to steal funds. Picture: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images

Mr Taylor said his charity will be working closely with cyber security experts to probe the incident and further strengthen the security of its systems.

“We thank our donors and sponsors for their ongoing support and understanding.

“We remain committed to the delivery of The Smith Family programs to support the education of young Australians in need.”

The attack follows high-profile incidents affecting Optus and the nation’s biggest insurer Medibank leading to calls for tougher penalties for repeated or serious privacy breaches.

Earlier this month, cyber security minister Clare O’Neil also announced a new taskforce to “hack the hackers” behind the recent Medicare breach, in which data about some 10 million customers was stolen by Russian criminals.

The joint collaboration between the Australian Federal Police and the Australian Signals Directorate will involve 100 or so operatives using the same tactics and weapons as cyber criminals in a bid to hunt them down.

Originally published as The Smith Family hit by cyber attack, joining a growing list of targets including Medibank and Optus