Friday 19th of June – clients reported receiving emails directly from auDA with the subject: “Data incident related to your .au domain name registration”.
The actual number of affected domains was limited to a small number and here is the actual notification:
We are writing to inform you of a potential disclosure of certain information provided to your domain name registrar or reseller during the domain name licence registration process.
Information associated with your domain name licence may have been inadvertently entered into the .au registry during the domain name registration process and may be visible to the public if the domain name is searched on the .au WHOIS service.
It has not been possible for auDA to identify the nature of information provided. It may be public business identifiers from legacy state-based business names or foreign jurisdictions, however, in some cases may include personal information
Impacted domain name(s): DOMAIN
auDA encourages you to contact your registrar to review the WHOIS information associated with your domain as soon as possible. More information on steps you can take is provided below.
Further background information is available in auDA’s statement on the auDA website: www.auda.org.au
Recommended action
auDA recommends you contact your registrar DROP.com.au Pty Ltd as soon as possible. If required, you can find your registrar’s contact information via the .au WHOIS tool. auDA is also available to provide assistance.
Your registrar will help you check your registration information and make any updates, if required. If the information is related to your business or an organisation, your registrar can update the information so your domain name record is correct.
If the information is confirmed to be a personal identifier, this will be removed from your record, and you can access support through IDCare, Australia’s national identity and cyber support service.
auDA has partnered with IDCARE, which provides specialist support specifically for identity compromise, misuse, and exploitation, offering personalised guidance to help reduce risk and support recovery where personal information may be at risk. IDCARE’s services are provided at no cost to you.
To access support, complete the online Get Help form at www.idcare.org, or call 1800 595 160. Specialist Case Managers are available 7am-7pm AEST, Monday to Friday (excluding public holidays).
When contacting IDCARE, make sure to use your referral code AUDA26 to unlock our prioritised service. This code is unique to this incident and should only be shared with auDA and IDCARE.
More information
auDA takes data privacy seriously and extends its apologies for any concern and inconvenience caused.
Should you require further information following discussion with your registrar, you can contact auDA via our website or phone 1300 732 929 (within Australia) or +61 3 8341 4111 (international) between 8am and 8pm AEST seven days a week.
auDA encourages you to:
– Always verify the sender of electronic communications by checking its legitimacy via an independent source;
– Unless you are sure of the sender, do not click links contained within electronic communications or provide any personal identification information or documents to the sender;
– Stay alert to any attempt by a third-party to use your information without your consent.
General advice on privacy and data protection is also available from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner and Cyber.gov.au. auDA has also released additional guidance on the .au WHOIS to help registrants understand how the WHOIS works, including key public fields.
Sincerely,
Sharon Copeland-Smith
auDA Chief Operating Officer
There was only a small number of actual domains affected overall, and for Above and Drop clients only 5 domains were identified. The good news is that all 5 domains fell into the “Unknown” bucket where the data that was exposed did not look like an ABN or ACN, but it was not PII data either, so glad to hear that auDA are treating all breaches seriously and even if the data was not clearly PII based they still took care to make the appropriate notification. Well done for taking the necessary steps and keeping the Registrars informed with all the details needed to verify.
