Tasmania gov caught up in HWL Ebsworth breach

The Tasmanian government is exposed to the data breach of law firm HWL Ebsworth, and was notified of that exposure by federal authorities last last week.

The contact from the federal government was triggered by “the illegal release of data held by national law firm HWL Ebsworth onto the dark web.”

It was first notified of the compromise of HWL Ebsworth in early May. The ALPVH/BlackCat group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

By June 9, HWL Ebsworth was alerted that the threat actor had exfiltrated about 1.4TB of data and published it.

Tasmania's minister for science and technology Madeleine Ogilvie said the federal government is taking a nationally coordinated approach to investigate the impacts of this incident.

A departmental spokesperson told iTnews that the “government continues to actively engage HWL Ebsworth as it investigates the extent of the breach."

“The government will work with HWL Ebsworth to understand and manage potential consequences of the publication of the data.”

The Tasmania government was also exposed to a breach this past April when roughly 16,000 financial invoices and statements issued by the department of education were lost and leaked in the GoAnywhere breach.