Cyber attack: Hackers access NSW Coalition MPs’ personal details
A cyber security breach at state parliament has left many MPs “uneasy” their personal details have been hacked. The Saturday Telegraph can reveal the documents believed to have been accessed include the internal NSW Coalition directory which lists the home addresses and phone numbers of ministers.
NSW
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A hacker has broken in to the computers of the NSW parliament with state government ministers advised that their personal details have been accessed.
The security breach is understood to have occurred two years ago but was uncovered as part of a recent audit following recent hacking incidents at a commonwealth level.
Among the documents believed to have been accessed is the internal NSW Coalition directory which lists the home addresses and phone numbers of ministers and that of their spouses.
One minister told The Saturday Telegraph that he received a call from parliamentary security on Thursday, alerting him to the discovery.
“The directory has all our details, home address, the name and phone number of our partners,” he said.
“I got the call yesterday that it had been accessed.
“MPS are now conscious — particularly with what's happened federally — of even speaking about sensitive matters on the phone. A lot of us are now back to using pen and paper.”
Another Liberal MP told the Telegraph that the breach had left many MPs “uneasy”.
“It’s put the fear of God into parliamentarians knowing such personal information is now available to the highest bidder,” the MP said.
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NSW Lower House Speaker Jonathon O’Dea declined to comment on the matter.
“The parliament does not comment on security matters,” he said.
The discovery comes as NSW MPs prepare for the resumption of state parliament on Tuesday.
The Telegraph is aware of several ministers who have been the subject of personal threats in the past year.
Last week, a Lake Macquarie man pleaded guilty to sending death threats to NSW Police Minister David Elliott last month.
PM Scott Morrison last month declared organisations, including governments and businesses, were currently being targeted by a sophisticated foreign “state-based” hacker. While Mr Morrison did not reveal the identity of the hacker, it was reported that China was believed to be behind the malicious attacks.
China has previously been blamed for hacking the Bureau of Meteorology and was linked — but never proven — as being behind an outage on the Census 2016 online system.
In February last year, hackers also accessed federal parliamentary computers.
The attack followed the Department of Parliamentary Services being allocated $9 million to set up a cyber security operations centre.
It is understood the NSW parliament IT department is investigating the latest breach.