Scouts Victoria recently informed 900 people about a possible leak of their personal data, following a breach in its staff email inboxes
The organization's IT team was the first to discover the breach in July and August, and it is likely the result of a phishing on the organization's systems.
Scouts Victoria said it had contacted digital analytics and cybersecurity experts toinvestigate the incident and the data involved in the breach. Prior to this move, the organisation's IT team had identified and stopped any further malicious activity.
The extensive investigation found that sensitive information, such as residential addresses, credit card information, driver's license numbers, birth certificates, criminal history information, and court orders, may have been compromised.
The data was stored as part of correspondence between Scouts Victoria members and a "number of individuals" associated with the organization.
"We have contacted individuals we know may have been directly affected by this incident and will continue to work with them to address their concerns," Scouts Victoria said.
The Office of the Australian Information and Services Commissioner was also notified of the incident.
Scouts Victoria said the organisation has now "taken appropriate measures to ensure such incidents do not recur".
"We take our privacy obligations very seriously and are investing significant resources to investigate the source of the incident."
"While all affected members have been notified, we encourage anyone with questions to contact Scouts Victoria and we can address any concerns they may have.".
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's Scamwatch website has received almost 24,000 reports of phishing scams in Australia so far this year, over 4200 of which were reported in August.
