The NSW Reconstruction Authority has confirmed that 2031 people who provided personal information for the Northern Rivers Resilient Homes Program have had some of their information involved in a data breach.
The breach occurred March 12—15 when a former temporary employee of the RA uploaded data containing personal information to an unsecured Artificial Intelligence tool which was not authorised.
There is no evidence that any of the uploaded data is publicly available online or has been accessed by a third party at this stage.
The Reconstruction Authority can confirm that no driver’s licence numbers, Medicare numbers, passport numbers or Tax File Numbers were disclosed in the breach.
The information disclosed in the breach includes general case information as well as:
- Name and contact details
- Residential/mailing address
- Date of birth
- Personal information
- Sensitive health information
- Limited financial commentary, but not banking or financial details
The Authority with assistance from ID Support NSW is contacting people to confirm what information has been affected and to offer personalised support.
“We are working with Cyber Security NSW to monitor the internet and dark web to see if any of the information is accessible online,” a spokesperson said.
“This analysis will be ongoing. The NSW Privacy Commissioner has also been notified.”
What support is available?
The Authority is working with Social Futures to reach out to people who have been impacted and ID Support NSW, a government identity and cyber security support service, to assist anyone whose data may have been compromised.
To access this free support, people should:
- Call ID Support on 1800 001 040 and provide the reference number included in their notification from us. The ID Support team is available Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm, excluding public holidays. Interpreter services are available.
- Go online to https://portal.idsupport.nsw.gov.au/s/ to access the breach portal. Enter the reference number to enter the portal.
What should people do?
- If anyone impacted wants to discuss the exact types of their personal information that were involved in the data breach they can contact Reconstruction Authority on 9212 9212. Staff are available Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm, excluding public holidays.
- Anyone impacted should regularly check credit card and bank statements for unusual transactions. If impacted ask for a temporary ban on cards or accounts if you detect unusual activity and suspect fraud, cancel or suspend the card and request a new card if there are unauthorised transactions or transfers.
- Remain vigilant of scammers and to remain alert, especially with email, text messages or telephone calls and to use two-step authentication for personal email accounts and other online accounts.
- Do not to share personal information over the phone unless you are certain about who you are sharing it with. And if you notice suspicious access to email accounts and other online accounts, reset passwords for their accounts.
For more information, visit the government website.
This information was provided by the NSW Reconstruction Authority.