Nine Entertainment’s real estate-listing company Domain has fallen victim to cyber criminals

Nine Entertainment has been hit by a second major cyber attack in two months — this time impacting its real estate advertising business.

Jason Pellegrino. Picture: Hollie Adams/The Australian

Nine Entertainment’s online real estate platform Domain has been hit by a major cyber attack, with thousands of its users potentially affected by the serious security breach.

Domain — which is 60 per cent owned by Nine — has apologised for “any stress” and “negative impact” experienced by the website’s users, and said it was “disappointing for us”.

The phishing attack was identified in recent weeks and involved fictitious real estate agents offering rental property deals to potential tenants who had made inquiries about listings.

Phishing is when scammers impersonate legitimate organisations usually via email, text messages or advertisements in exchange for personal information.

In this instance the cyber criminals instructed potential tenants to hand over money in order to secure a property.

Domain has been forced to issue a warning to thousands of its users who inquired about rental homes in the past few months.

In correspondence sent to users, Domain’s chief executive officer Jason Pellegrino said their personal information might have been stolen by criminals.

“There is a risk that some of your personal information may have been accessed by an unauthorised third party that has obtained access to Domain’s systems as a result of a scam targeting one of our systems,” he said in written correspondence.

“This may include your first name and surname, email address, postcode, details of your inquiry, details of the property you inquired about, phone number (if provided).”

But it has been confirmed to date no users have handed over money to the cyber criminals.

A Nine spokesman confirmed on Thursday the attack was not linked to March’s cyber hack which left the company dealing with major disruptions that forced shows off air including breakfast program, Weekend Today and the Sunday Footy Show.

Nine also owns The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, The Australian Financial Review, and radio stations 2GB and 3AW. Some staff across these platforms were also impacted from the March attack.

Mr Pellegrino said in his written correspondence to users when Domain was made aware of the latest scam they implemented “additional security controls and elevated our level of monitoring even further”.

Domain has also engaged external security experts to prevent further online scams and notified independent agency, the Australian Information Commissioner and relevant authorities.

They confirmed less than 1 per cent of their “at risk” customers have contacted the company about the cyber attack.

For anyone who is concerned their personal information might have been jeopardised or they have fallen victim to the scam, a Domain spokeswoman said they should report it to Scamwatch.