Emergency warning system hacked
A hacker was able to send messages via text, email and landline to tens of thousands of people throughout Australia following the hacking of an emergency alert service used by councils.
Key points: The company says that a’ small proportion’ of its database received a message from the hacker People who received the message are encouraged to delete it and not to reply Police investigate the breach.
The message sent by the Early Warning Network on Friday night warned that’ EWN was hacked. Your personal information is unsafe. Try to solve the security problems. “It then contained a link to an email support address and a website.
EWN said that a hacker accessed their alert system and sent the message to part of their database. ” This was sent via e-mail, text message and online, ” Facebook posted to the company. ” EWN employees were able to quickly identify the attack and shut down our systems to reduce the number of messages sent.
Unfortunately, a small proportion of our database received this warning. “Residents were urged not to click on the links and delete the message. EWN Managing Director Kerry Plowright said that the breach originated from Australia and involved “compromised login details.”
Nobody’s personal information was compromised by this event, “he said.” The actual data in our system is only data of the type ‘ white pages,’ we deliberately do not hold any other personal data. Message with text saying “EWN was hacked.
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.
EWN said that the message was sent by an alert system accessing hacker. Supplied) ” The purpose of the notification was to damage the business by the person who sent it. It was malicious. ” Mr. Plowright said that not all of the company’s customers were affected, but the local, state and federal government agencies involved.
The company said that its warning system was fully operational during the violation and that it was working on the investigation with the Queensland Police and the Australian Cyber Security Centre.
Source: abc.net.au
The councils of Queensland, Gladstone, Tablelands, Ipswich and Logan posted on their Facebook pages to warn residents of the breach. The residents of Darwin also reported receiving scam texts and e-mails from the EWN, which was used by the Territory Insurance Office (TIO) to send serious weather warnings, including for cyclones. Kerry Plowright PHOTO, founder of EWN: Kerry Plowright said he was extremely embarrassed by the break.
‘Imperative’ when bushfires broke through parts of central Queensland last month, communities relied on the system to save lives and to alert residents to evacuation.
Acting Gladstone Mayor Chris Trevor said that the Council was not concerned only with breaches of personal information.
“We are afraid that[ residents] will now withdraw from a system that is so imperative to preserve life, ” he said. ” It was clear [in December] that the system of early warning saved lives. “Unfortunately, we now have a coward or a coward who tried to infiltrate this system.”
