Labor accused of 'scare mongering' over hack for political points
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The government will increase its investigation efforts over Easter
Tasmanians' data is probably in the hands of a Russian criminal gang and is being held for ransom, Opposition Science and Technology spokesperson Jen Butler said on Thursday.
"We know that these groups are very sophisticated ... and they have advised that Tasmanians' data has been compromised. So it wouldn't take much to assume that they have our data," Ms Butler said.
Minister for Science and Technology, Madeleine Ogilvie, this week said data from the Department of Education and Children may have fallen into the hands of hackers, following a breach of a third-party cloud computing service, GoAnywhere MFT, that the government was using.
She said investigations into the possible breach would be stepped up over Easter, and accused the Opposition of making the situation worse for Tasmanians by "scare mongering" and "peddling misinformation".
Ms Butler "may think she is scoring a political point, but she is blatantly and wilfully ignoring the fact she is causing harm and risks causing further harm", Ms Ogilvie said.
"At no point have I said there was no risk and no threat to Tasmanians' data," she said.
"Throughout this process I have been provided with a range of information, and when it was possible to make it public, that is when I have done so."
Ms Butler said the Russian gang had obtained data via the same breach from other Australian companies, including Crown Resorts, and has already started releasing some of it online. The breach has hit 130 organisations.
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Thursday, April 6, 2023 at 7:32 am