Aussies urged to monitor their bank accounts for 'suspicious activity' after Clive Palmer hacked by cybercriminals

Daily Mail​

18-07-2025

Australians have been urged to monitor their bank accounts for suspicious activity after cybercriminals targeted companies belonging to billionaire Clive Palmer.
Palmer's two multi-million dollar political ventures, the United Australia Party (UAP) and Trumpet of Patriots (TOP), fell victim to a ransomware breach on June 23.
The hack is believed to have exposed vast amounts of personal data, including bank details, identity documents and confidential correspondence.
Details have only just been made public after the parties admitted they could not determine the full extent of the damage or identify all those affected.
In a statement to supporters, TOP revealed that 'unauthorised access' was detected on their servers and that 'years' worth of sensitive documents have been stolen.
'We do not know comprehensively what information of yours was on the server but you should assume that any information you have provided would have been stored on the server,' the statement read.
TOP said it did not keep a record of whose details were on the server, saying it was 'impracticable' to attempt to notify those affected individually.
The parties confirmed that all emails to and from their systems, along with their attachments and internal documents, may have been accessed or downloaded.
In the wake of the attack, the parties say they have secured their systems and restored data using backup tapes.
The incident has been reported to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) and the Australian Signals Directorate.
Australians who have ever contacted or supported the UAP or Trumpet of Patriots are being urged to take precautionary steps, including changing passwords, enabling multi-factor authentication, and monitoring bank accounts for suspicious activity.
Both the UAP and TOP have long courted controversy for its bizarre policy stances, anti-lockdown campaigns and populist rhetoric.
During election campaigns, the party became notorious for bombarding millions of Australians with mass text messages, a tactic that skirts anti-spam laws by exploiting exemptions for electoral communication.
It is not known if the database of text messages owned by TOP or UAP was compromised in the hack last month.
Ironically, the party has urged those impacted to remain on guard from messages sent by political parties.
'Please remain alert especially with email, text messages or phone calls, particularly where the sender or call purports to be from the Political Parties,' it said.
The Trumpet of Patriots failed to win a single seat in the House of Representatives in the 2025 election, despite sending $60million on ads.
In 2022, the then United Australia Party won just one seat in the Senate, after splashing a whopping $120million on campaign efforts.
In 2021, the party claimed it had more than 80,000 members.