Everything you need to know about the Service NSW Data Breach
And how to tell if you’re an affected customer…
- by
Bec Milligan
It’s been months since the infamous Optus and Medibank data breaches occurred but now another breach has taken place. A department of the New South Wales (NSW) government has issued a warning that the personal information of some Service NSW customers was exposed to other logged in users.
As reported by 7 News, Service NSW’s chief executive officer Greg Wells said in an email to affected customers that the data breach occurred because of a website update to the “My Services” dashboard on March 20.
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“Unfortunately, the update resulted in some customers’ information being visible to other customers who were logged in to the website between 1.20pm and 2.54pm,” Wells said.
The information that may have been visible included driver’s licence details, vehicle registration details, children’s names and/or mobile numbers, and it would’ve been visible for 94 minutes.
Wells said that the breach was purely caused by the update and was not the result of hackers. He was also adamant that the incident only presented a low risk to affected customers.
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“I can confirm this was not a cyberattack and Service NSW believes that any risk of harm presented by this incident is very low,” Wells said.
If you’re a Service NSW customer, here’s what you can do to protect yourself and everything else you need to know.
What data has been breached?
The following information may have been compromised for some Service NSW customers:
Driver’s licence
Vehicle registration
Children’s names
Mobiles numbers
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How to know if your data has been breached?
Service NSW has emailed all affected customers (estimated to be 3700 individuals), so check your inbox to see if they’ve contacted you about the breach.
What should I do about the Service NSW data breach?
If Service NSW has advised you that you were affected by the breach, be alert for any suspicious activity, messages or phone calls. You can also call ID Support NSW on 1800 001 040 if you wish to get further advice.