How 30k Aussies Don’t Know They Were Hacked

Data security breach in Australia

Recently, it was revealed by a top official that about 30,000 Aussies resident privacy has been intruded till date this group of people are not aware of this glitch. Privileged information has been compromised as a result of the hacking that occurred in the previous year.

According to investigations carried out on cybersecurity, it was revealed that over 105,000 people were victims of the cyberattack and only 80 per cent of these people have knowledge of the compromise. Some individuals who suffered from the hack have been reached while some of these individuals are yet to be reached because they are yet to be identified. These unidentified individuals are devoid of the knowledge that their certain life information had been compromised.

It is believed that the reason behind the possibility of the hack can be found in the electronic mailing of privileged information from one agency to another. This act has been frowned upon and as many as a contributory agent to the bridge of cybersecurity. It was stated that this hack occurred in December 2020 when the government agency in charge of personal data of its people was sabotaged. It occurred as a result of the continuous emailing of the bio-data of the people from one government agency to another. It is still believed by many that the act of emailing data and confidential documents is still ongoing in various government agencies even though it is unsafe to keep doing such.

Data information is sensitive, and as such, every form of due diligence should be carried out when dealing with such information. Email can easily be compromised, and it will be foolhardy if the agency fails to disembark from such an act. For instance, sensitive pieces of information such as the driving licence of an individual should not be sent through email.

Although, the government agency has boasted of the fact and also provided a figure on the number of people affected by the hack, however, that will not be enough. The agency must be able to reach out to everyone affected by the hack. They should also work on ways to prevent such acts from reoccurring in the future.

In order to prevent this act from leading to threat to and unrest among the general public, the agency engaged in a unique method of reaching out to those affected by the hack. The agency adopted a one-on-one mailing system which has to do with reaching out to affected individuals through their physical mail. This is done by obtaining an exemption clause from the Information and Privacy Commission. This act would grant them the power to access every affected person’s physical mail address.

Data privacy should be the primary concern of any country, and the Australian government also needs to put in place adequate protection for the privileged information of her people. The government is working on a tracing app to track the 30,000 people who are still unaware of the hack on their private life.