Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party, Trumpet of Patriots hit in ‘ransomware cyber attack’

Banking records are among the personal data that may have been exposed in a cyber attack on Clive Palmer’s political parties.

Clive Palmer’s two political parties – the Trumpet of Patriots and United Australia Party (UAP) – have been targeted in a “ransomware cyber attack”.

The UAP and Trumpet of Patriots confirmed it had identified an unauthorised access to its servers on June 23.

“We identified unauthorised access to our servers resulting in access to, and the possible exfiltration of, certain data records,” the statement read.

“We were the subject of a ransomware cyber attack.”

Clive Palmer’s political parties have been targeted in a cyber hack. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The data records breached in the hack potentially include all emails to and from the political parties - including their attachments - and documents and records created and or held electronically by the political parties at any time in the past, the statement continued.

The parties confirmed the breach may include people’s personal information, including email address, phone number, identity and banking records, documents and employment history.

However, UAP and Trumpet for Patriots have said they were unsure what hackers accessed during the breach.

“We do not know comprehensively what information of yours was on the server, but you should assume that any information you have provided would have been stored on the server,” the statement read.

The political parties said because they “do not keep records” of the individuals who were on the server, they “determined it is impracticable to notify individuals”.

The parties confirmed they would not be contacting affected people, as they “do not keep records” of individuals on their server. NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Instead, they said they have “secured our systems and restored recoverable data from back up tapes”.

They have also reported the breach to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) and to the Australian Signals Directorate.

Affected people have been urged to monitor their bank accounts, change their passwords and enable two-factor authentication as a precaution.

“We recommend that you review your communications (emails and mail) with us to identify any information you have provided to us and consider what other information might be affected,” the parties said.

“We recommend you carefully consider whether you need to take any action in response to the data breach on the assumption that the hackers may have accessed your data.

“We urge you to follow general precautionary steps and remain vigilant about the misuse of your personal information.”