Singtel-owned Dialog Group hacked

Singtel-owned IT consultancy Dialog Group has notified customers and staff of an attack on its systems in September 2022.

The company published an advisory, later carried by its parent, which says the incident is unrelated to last month’s attack on Optus.

The statement says Dialog’s systems are separate to those of Optus, and also of the other Singtel companies in its ownership chain.

Dialog said “an unauthorised third party may have accessed company data, potentially affecting fewer than 20 clients and 1000 current Dialog employees as well as former employees."

“We have notified the relevant authorities and are supporting those who may be impacted to protect against the risk of fraudulent activity," it said.

The company said it detected “unauthorised access” on its servers on September 10, and shut down its servers; it had them "restored and fully operational" again "within two business days", it said.

A cyber security specialist is now undertaking a forensic investigation, as well as monitoring the dark web.

“Our ongoing investigations showed no evidence of unauthorised downloading of data,” Dialog’s statement said. 

However, it said "a very small sample of Dialog’s data, including some employee personal information, was published on the dark web.”