The TPG telecom company stated that a hacking group hunted down crypto and financial information from the exposed emails of a recent cyberattack.
According to the company, an email-hosting service utilised by more than 15,000 Westnet and iiNet business customers has been infiltrated by hackers. The attackers specifically searched for financial and cryptocurrency information from the exposed customer emails.
TPG explained that a cybersecurity firm discovered proof of unwanted access to a Hosted Exchange service regularly used by Westnet and iiNet business customers. The Hosted Exchange service is a Microsoft product that Westnet and iiNet run to give email services to their customers.
The telecommunication firm said that the initial study of the service activity revealed that the adversaries’ primary objective was to scour for customers’ financial and crypto information.
TPG telecom assured everyone that mobile and broadband services were unaffected during the breach.
The TPG telco company has yet to disclose the full scope of the attack since there is still an ongoing cybersecurity investigation. However, the firm said the data breach incident did not impact their mobile and broadband services since they cut access to that part of the system before the hackers could reach it.
Australia has dealt with severe cybersecurity incidents as many companies have experienced cyber issues. One of TPGs most prominent competitors, Telstra, recently disclosed that they have accidentally leaked the data of more than 130,000 unlisted customers to its directory assistance or the White Pages.
The Australian health insurer Medibank also announced last week that law firm Maurice Blackburn had settled a complaint with the OAIC after a cyberattack exposed about 10 million current and former customers on the dark web.
As of now, several entities from Australia are dealing with some form of cybersecurity issue. Cybersecurity experts suggest that companies should start investing in upgrading their cyber defences to minimise and avoid cybercriminal activities from numerous threat groups.
