‘Your personal data is not safe’: Emergency text service hacked

Author : mamun Published: January 06, 2019

Updated

January 07, 2019 13:00:31

A hacker has been able to send messages via text, email, and landline to tens of thousands of people across Australia after an emergency warning alert service, used by councils, was hacked.

Key points:

The company says a ‘small proportion’ of its database received a message from the hacker
People who received the message are urged to delete it and not reply
Police are investigating the breach

The message sent from the Early Warning Network on Friday night warned “EWN has been hacked. Your personal data is not safe. Trying to fix the security issues”.

It then included a link to a support email address and a website.

EWN said a hacker accessed its alerting system and sent the message to part of its database.

“This was sent out via email, text message and landline,” the company posted on Facebook.

“EWN staff at the time were able to quickly identify the attack and shut off our systems limiting the amount of messages sent out. Unfortunately, a small proportion of our database received this alert.”

The company urged residents to not click the links and to delete the message.

“We are currently investigating the attack and are working with the police to resolve this matter,” it said.

Infographic:
Email sent to some Queenslanders on January 5, 2019 telling them the Early Warning Network had been hacked. EWN said the message was sent by a hacker who accessed the alert system.
(Supplied)

EWN managing director, Kerry Plowright, said the breach is believed to have come from within Australia and involved “compromised login details”.

“This event did not compromise anybody’s personal information,” he said.

“The actual data held in our system is just ‘white pages’ type data, we deliberately don’t hold any other personal information.

“The purpose of that notification from the person that sent it was to damage this business. It was malicious.”

Mr Plowright said not all of the company’s clients were affected, but those that were included local, state and federal government agencies.

In Queensland, Gladstone, Tablelands, Ipswich, and Logan councils posted on their Facebook pages to warn residents about the breach.

A number of residents replied saying they had received the messages.

Topics:

local-government,