Latest news with #ransomware
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Aussies urged to monitor their bank accounts after Clive Palmer hack
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 'unauthorized 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 $60 million on ads. In 2022, the then United Australia Party won just one seat in the Senate, after splashing a whopping $120 million on campaign efforts. In 2021, the party claimed it had more than 80,000 members. Daily Mail Australia has contacted the Trumpet of Patriots for comment.
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Aussies urged to monitor their bank accounts for 'suspicious activity' after Clive Palmer hacked by cybercriminals
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.
News.com.au
2 days ago
- Politics
- News.com.au
Clive Palmer's United Australia Party, Trumpet of Patriots hit in ‘ransomware cyber attack'
Clive Palmer's two political parties – the Trumpet of Patriots and United Australia Party (UAP) – have been targeted in a 'ransomware cyber attack'. The UAP and Trumpet of Patriots confirmed it had identified an unauthorised access to its servers on June 23. 'We identified unauthorised access to our servers resulting in access to, and the possible exfiltration of, certain data records,' the statement read. 'We were the subject of a ransomware cyber attack.' The data records breached in the hack potentially include all emails to and from the political parties - including their attachments - and documents and records created and or held electronically by the political parties at any time in the past, the statement continued. The parties confirmed the breach may include people's personal information, including email address, phone number, identity and banking records, documents and employment history. However, UAP and Trumpet for Patriots have said they were unsure what hackers accessed during the breach. '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. The political parties said because they 'do not keep records' of the individuals who were on the server, they 'determined it is impracticable to notify individuals'. Instead, they said they have 'secured our systems and restored recoverable data from back up tapes'. They have also reported the breach to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) and to the Australian Signals Directorate. Affected people have been urged to monitor their bank accounts, change their passwords and enable two-factor authentication as a precaution. 'We recommend that you review your communications (emails and mail) with us to identify any information you have provided to us and consider what other information might be affected,' the parties said. 'We recommend you carefully consider whether you need to take any action in response to the data breach on the assumption that the hackers may have accessed your data. 'We urge you to follow general precautionary steps and remain vigilant about the misuse of your personal information.'
RNZ News
2 days ago
- Health
- RNZ News
Tonga's health system 'fully restored' after cyber attack with Australia's help
Tonga's Health Minister Dr ʻAna ʻAkauʻola said that the system has been fully restored. Photo: 123RF Problems resulting from a cyber attack on Tonga's Health Information System appear to have been resolved. The assault on the system a month ago led to a demand by the hackers for a ransom of one million dollars. RNZ Pacific Tonga correspondent Kalafi Moala updated us about the latest developments. (This transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity.) KALAFI MOALA: The system was hacked, the health information system, and they asked for payment of a million dollars to have the system back. The government or the Ministry of Health refused to make any payments. In the meantime, they called for help to Australia, who sent their expertise to help them out. The way the Minister of Health (Dr ʻAna ʻAkauʻola) described it was that it was within 48 hours they were able to call for help, and immediately there was a response. And it was very, very key in helping them restore the system. DON WISEMAN: The presumption has always been that these villains located overseas. Do we know any more about that? KM: No, there's nothing that has been revealed, or at least that has been disclosed from the ministry, other than the fact that they're from overseas. They couldn't put a face to them. In other words, they were not any individuals, just that there was a group that did that. But the talk, of course, the guesses in town is that probably there's a group overseas that had local connections that did the hacking. DW: The Australians have left. Have they left a system in place that's stronger than it was before they made that announcement? KM: The Minister of Health made that announcement yesterday (Wednesday), saying that the system has been fully restored. She used the term, saying there's still some gaps, but they're back into it. I think with the restoration of the system, they also have had a backup, so that if this thing happens again, they've got a backup to the information system. DW: Tongans who had health issues, or have health issues, had been told that they needed to take what information they had. Hand written, I guess, information they had to take into appointments, outpatient appointments and so on. That's not still happening? KM: Well, no, that's not happening. But they were basically responding to the shock that came from people saying, what's going to happen to us now if we're going to go in when some of the patients don't even know the kind of records they get. For example, things that they are allergic to, the kind of medication and its details that they were given. So, the restoration of the system really recovers all of that without having the patient to be able to come into the hospital and and try to bring up all that information. I think it's really good, and it's returned to what it was. DW: I guess the officials and health are very concerned about things and so with the government. But to what extent did it bother the people? KM: Well, it really was a scare for people. Look, the immediate response was, what does this mean for me? The thing is, a patient, 'I've got my own personal information in somebody else's hands, who's a criminal who not only stole it, but basically are demanding money for the returning of that information. But one of the issues is that Tonga is turning to become digital in so many of its services, like you go to apply now for birth certificate, marriage certificate, and all those things are being now, including visas, being now done digitally. And so that transition, it means that all the government systems are going to be digital. This hacking that took place, it's like a warning that we need to be careful in what we're doing, and we need to have backup systems, and that security is so important as Tonga is becoming more digital in its government services.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Russia's Novabev Group hit by cyberattack
Russian alcohol company Novabev Group has reported being hit by a cyberattack, which impacted its operations. The owner of the Beluga and Belenkaya vodka brands said in a statement the incident occurred on 14 July. The company said it was an 'unprecedented cyberattack - a large-scale, coordinated action carried out by hackers'. Novabev added the incident led to 'temporary disruption' of a part of its IT infrastructure, affecting the availability of services and tools, including those of its retail arm, WineLab. "The attackers contacted us and demanded a monetary reward. However, the company maintains a principled position of rejecting any interaction with cybercriminals and refuses to fulfill their demands," it said. Novabev said the IT team is 'working around the clock to resolve the situation' and 'external experts have been involved' to accelerate the process. 'Every effort is being made to resume operations as soon as possible,' the Moscow stock exchange-listed group added. Novabev assured that, based on current information, customers' personal data remains uncompromised, although the investigation continues. The company operates five distilleries and the Golubitskoe Estate winery. Its portfolio also includes Golden Reserve brandy and Devil's Island rum. In 2024, the group reported a 16% increase in net revenue, reaching Rbs135.46bn ($1.72bn). Despite revenue growth, operating profit fell by 11% to Rbs12.35bn, with net income dropping 43% to Rbs4.58bn due to rising costs and store openings. As of June 2025, WineLab had over 2,100 outlets. Alongside the results in March, Novabev said it is the 'leader in the production of spirits, the number one supplier in terms of sales in all channels, including federal key accounts, as well as the main importer of wine and spirits in Russia'. Its imported brand portfolio includes Barceló rum, Torres brandy, Noy cognac, as well as The San-In whiskey, Agavita tequila, and Disaronno liqueur. "Russia's Novabev Group hit by cyberattack " was originally created and published by Just Drinks, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
