A Nov. 16 ransomware attack on Frontier Software leaked “significant personal information” of thousands of South Australian government employees on the dark web, according to a Friday statement by Rob Lucas, treasurer of South Australia.
Lucas referred to a Thursday update by the software company, whose HR and payroll system Chris21 had been attacked. The update says that state government data had been stolen from its network during the incident and published on the dark web.
An investigation by cybersecurity experts from CyberCX – onboarded by Frontier Software in November – revealed that data had been exfiltrated from Frontier Software’s internal Australian corporate environment.
Frontier Software has been undertaking payroll services on behalf of the South Australian Government since 2001, says Lucas. “Records of at least 38,000 employees were accessed, and up to 80,000 employees might have been accessed” by the ransomware actors, he says. The government, he adds, will soon establish a more accurate number.
