Victoria Racing Club suffers cyberattack

The Victoria Racing Club has been hit by a cyberattack, potentially exposing the data of tens of thousands of members.

Chief executive Steve Rosich said “an unauthorised third party” had accessed the club’s system.

The end of last year’s Melbourne Cup.Credit: Getty

“We are urgently investigating to determine whether there has been unauthorised access to our data,” Rosich said in a statement late on Friday.

“We are operating as normal and there has been no disruption to our operations. We are informing employees, members, partners and sponsors about the incident, to encourage them to practise cyber vigilance and remain alert for scams while our investigation is ongoing.”

The VRC, which organises the annual Melbourne Cup Carnival at Flemington Racecourse, last year said it had a record 33,120 members.

Rosich said the club acted immediately to contain the breach when it was detected. He said the incident had also been reported to the Australian Cyber Security Centre.

“The protection of all of our stakeholders’ information is our upmost priority and we apologise for any concern that this incident has caused.”

The VRC on Friday sent a separate email to members alerting them to the breach.

In the email, the club committed to communicating with members about the investigation “in a timely and transparent manner”. But it provided no further details than the club’s media statement about what system breach occurred.

High-profile data breaches at Australian companies such as Optus and Medibank have heightened fears of more people falling victim to identity theft, extortion and financial crime.

Cybersecurity experts warn regular cyberattacks affecting Australian businesses and institutions have become the “new normal”.

With Danny Russell

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