In November, a study from the Australian Cyber Security Centre attributed the bulk of incidents’ spike in assaults to insufficient software upgrades.
TPG Telecom Ltd., Australia’s No. 2 ISP, reported on Wednesday that it had received notification of an unauthorized access to a hosted exchange service, which houses email accounts for up to 15,000 corporate clients. This news caused its shares to drop by nearly 5%.
The incident is the most recent in a string of high-profile breaches in Australia that also affected the largest health insurance Medibank Private Ltd. and the second-largest telecoms company Optus, both of which were owned by Singapore Telecommunications Ltd.
In November, a study from the Australian Cyber Security Centre attributed the bulk of incidents’ spike in assaults to insufficient software upgrades.
The threat actor’s “main purpose,” according to TPG on Wednesday, was to look for clients’ bitcoin and banking information. The compromise was found by its cyber security consultant Mandiant during a forensic historical assessment.
Azeem Sherrif, a market analyst at CMC Markets, said that the incident “does highlight to the world and to Australia that it is still very easy for hackers to access client details, which is clearly a significant negative and a lot of the other firms should surely be concerned.”
TPG announced that it has taken steps to prevent unauthorized access and was getting in touch with every client on the exchange service impacted by the incident.
The largest telecom company in the nation, Telstra Corp. Ltd., confirmed a data breach involving a third-party supplier earlier in October that revealed some past employee information.
TPG’s stock fell 4.7% as the overall market rose 0.3%.
