Zircodata cyber hack: Personal information of tens of thousands of Aussies ... trends now
Russian hackers successfully breached a data company that serviced hundreds of Australian companied and government agencies, resulting in tens of thousands of documents being auctioned off on the dark web.
ZircoDATA and the federal government have begun the process of working out what data was compromised from more than 200 Australian organisations impacted by the February breach.
It was revealed on Friday that hackers accesses 4,000 sensitive documents from Monash Medical Centre and the electronic profiles of 60,000 Melbourne Polytechnic students.
Among the leaks from Monash Medical Centre, the Queen Victoria Hospital and Southern Health were archived documents relating to family violence and sexual support units in Melbourne's east between 1970 and 1993.
National Cyber Security Co-ordinator, General Michelle McGuinness, said on Friday that the government was working closely to identify the scope of the hack.
In February ZircoDATA said in a statement that an 'unauthorised third party' accessed its systems after the hackers said they had done so on the dark web.
The web post, by known cyber ring Black Basta, detailed an auction for the stolen information which prompted an AFP investigation.
The federal government is working with Victorian data company ZircoDATA who suffered a data breach in February (stock pictured)
Among the documents stolen were 4,000 archived files from Monash Medical Centre which concerned sexual violence in Melbourne's east
Following the February 22 post and subsequent investigation Ms McGuinness said Friday that 'the impact for most government entities is likely to be minimal'.
'[We] are still in the process of working with ZircoDATA to identify impacted data and any victims, and are yet to begin notifying impacted individuals,' she said.
Monash Health said that it is verifying the identities of those compromised before contacting them in order to not inadvertently expose them to reprisals from the hackers.
Chief executive Professor Eugine Yafele told The Age that he was helping in the investigation and was sorry to those that have been affected.
'Of utmost importance to us is providing support to those people who may be impacted by this breach,' he said.
'We are deeply disappointed to be in this position and understand the distress this may cause any impacted clients.'
Mr Yafele said his teams were working 'tirelessly' to identify those who are
