Personal information may have been accessed in data breach at government provider

Detailed summary

The department said it believed personal information including contact details may have been comprised in the breach.

Personal information and contact details may have been obtained in a data breach at a third-party service provider for the Queensland government.

Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service sent out an email on Wednesday warning Bookeasy, the service that manages its national parks booking system, had been compromised.

It said it believed personal information including contact details may have been accessed, but it did not think “at this stage” customers financial information was stolen.

“We take the privacy and security of your information extremely seriously and will provide further information to affected customers as soon as we know more,” the email, sent via the Department of the Environment, Tourism, Science and Innovation, added.

“We apologise for any concern this may cause and thank you for your patience while we investigate.”

The ABC reported customers in Victoria and South Australia had also been impacted.

A website for Bookeasy said the company had more than 20 years experience in tourism technology, and processes more than 20 million bookings each year.

In May more than five years of student and staff data was obtained as part of a data breach at third-party education technology company Instructure, which the state Education Department used for its QLearn online learning management system.

The contractor said it “reached an agreement” with online criminals for the information not to be publicly released or shared on the dark web.

Opening of the article, excerpted from The Age. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.