Data breach potential victims list nears 150,000, says premier

Personal information relating to one in four Tasmanians could be at risk in the breach of a government information service provider, it’s been revealed. LATEST >

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The number of Tasmanians whose personal and financial information may have been compromised in a Russian hack of a third-party data handler is approaching 150,000, Premier Jeremy Rockliff says.

Speaking at a press conference in Launceston on Tuesday, the Premier said Department of Education, Children and Youth had completed a “complex analysis of the potential data affected by the breach”, Mr Rockliff said.

“We’ve been contacting directly anyone who could be affected by the data breach and we will continue to do so,” he said.

“I’m advised that some 145,600 emails have been sent, I can advise as well that 377 personal phone calls have been made today and 2500 letters have been sent by mail to those who may not be able to be contacted via electronic means as well.”

So far data relating to 16,000 Tasmanians has been uploaded to the dark web by the hackers.

“My advice to Tasmanians is to be vigilant,” Mr Rockliff said.

“If you have any, of course, suspicion of illegal activity in terms of cybersecurity activity, then please be extremely cautious and careful.”

“We have people engaged and experts in the field to ensure that no stone is left unturned. “There is no evidence of any further data being breached but of course, we need to be vigilant and do all we can to ensure that people that we believe directly affected, that we make contact with them.”

Premier Jeremy Rockliff. Picture: Chris Kidd

He said there were no significant developments or additional data releases and he was not aware of any demand for a ransom and pledged the government would update the public when new information became available.

“It’s not about not being open and transparent of course, I’m here now answering questions,” he said.

“It’s about ensuring that we have a very measured response so that we don’t play into the hands of criminal hackers.”

The peak body representing the state’s business community said the government’s response to the cyber attack had been “extremely disappointing”.

“What we need right now is for the government to firstly step up and take responsibility for what’s happened,” Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry CEO Michael Bailey said.

“Pointing fingers and trying to shift blame at the moment is the last thing anyone needs.

“The government also needs to urgently improve the way it is communicating with the community.

“Rather than send out terse letters from public servants wagging their fingers at the media and politicians for simply doing their job and trying to hold the government to account, the government should be proactive in its communications.

“While the TCCI has received correspondence from the government as one of the potential victims of the hack and while I have had a brief conversation with Minister Ogilvie, it is very concerning that the TCCI has not been offered a briefing yet.

“What we’ve learnt from previous cyberattacks, such as the Optus attack and the Medibank Private attack, is that the more information that can be provided to victims and the broader community, the better.”

Labor and the Greens were given briefings on the data breach on Tuesday afternoon.

Shadow Minister for ICT, Science and Technology Jen Butler said the government had not been forthcoming with Tasmanians.

“They’ve had now three weeks of understanding that there had been a breach of Tasmanians’ personal data,” she said.

“They were reluctant to release any information, we only ascertained this information really because Russian hackers informed us they had our data.

“We now know that the Minister for IT Madeline Ogilvie is clearly not up to the job as managing this is has just been blunder after blunder, attempts to stop questioning, attempts to silence the media, attempts to silence people like us — elected representatives that has been elected to ask questions on behalf of the Tasmanian public.”