If you live in New South Wales or have ever participated in any events in Sydney – you will want to know about this.
It was revealed yesterday that the email system of a popular Sydney-based events company, Pont3, was hacked on the 6th of October. Mailing lists for the Sydney Running Festival, Electric Run, Sydney Harbour runs, Manly Inflatable Boat Race, Warrior Run, and Pont3 newsletters were compromised by an external 3rd party through a genuine user account.
It is estimated that 144.575 unique email addresses have been affected. Their investigations reveal that both volunteer and participant’s details were exported by this unknown user. Details stolen include names, phone numbers, emails, and mailing addresses. Fortunately, financial details were not compromised.
What’s the risk of my information being stolen?
The risk to being exposed to this data breach is an increased exposure to scams. Typically after cyber crime cases such as this means that participants should look out for emails, phone calls, SMS, and fake websites which may try and target them to obtain more personal information such as your financial details.
At present, dodgy emails have been sent to subscribers such as an being asked to pay invoices for up to $3,000 due this week.
- Social engineering – using deception to manipulate people into divulging personal information they normally would not share
- Phishing – emails that appear to be from a trusted source but actually are not
- Smishing – sending SMS texts to your mobile phone pretending that you’ve won a prize or are giving you a special offer if you go to their website
- Pretexting – tricking unsuspecting individuals by pretending to be someone from authority
Further investigation by Pont3, NSW Police, and cyber security experts are underway.
If you feel that you may have been affected by an online scam, contact the Australian Cybercrime Online Reporting Network (ACORN) at acorn.gov.au.
