Breaches Update – May 2015

by Jim Bulling and Julia Baldi

Pacnet
Pacnet, a subsidiary acquired by Telstra in April 2015, was hit by a major data breach affecting thousands of customers including The Australian Federal Police and government agencies. The breach occurred two weeks before the deal to acquire Pacnet by Telstra was finalised but was not disclosed to Telstra. Telstra is reportedly considering its legal options in respect of both the breach and the non-disclosure by the vendors.

See the Sydney Morning Herald article here.

Airline Computer Hacking
The FBI has alleged that a cybersecurity researcher had hacked into airline computers 15-20 times causing aircrafts to climb against pilot instructions.

See the report here.

Eastern European Syndicates Targeting Australia
The Herald Sun reports that Eastern European criminal syndicates are increasingly targeting Australian, with Computer systems were violated up to 15,000 times a day, on average, between October last year and January 2015.

See the full article here.