Data Theft Affects Hundreds of Svitzer Australia’s Employees

Towage provider Svitzer Australia was a victim of data theft in which the details of some 600 employees were leaked, Maritime Union of Australia cited the company.

From the total, 400 of the affected employees’ leaked data included bank account details and tax file numbers.

Svitzer confirmed the incident, saying that it “caused emails from three Australian employees’ email accounts to be auto-forwarded to two external email accounts” between May 27, 2017 and March 1, 2018.

Svitzer Australia identified the issue on March 1, 2018, and stopped the data theft within five hours of becoming aware of the cybercrime.

“All the necessary measures were quickly taken to effectively stop the data theft and our main focus now is on protecting our employees, our data and the Svitzer IT estate and business,” the company added.

Furthermore, Svitzer informed that IT forensic investigations determined that this was an isolated incident only impacting Svitzer Australia, not other parts of Svitzer, nor any other parts of the Maersk Group, Svitzer’s parent company.

“We can confirm that it is safe to write and receive emails from us, and that the details of any sensitive data stolen will be communicated directly with those potentially affected,” Steffen Risager, Managing Director of Svitzer Australia, said..

“This is a reminder of the constant threat individuals and businesses alike face. The nature of cybercrime means while we can get it right a thousand times, the perpetrator only needs to get it right once. We will learn from this experience,” Risager concluded.