What has happened?

We have become aware that in late August 2023, a third-party supplier to a small section of the property management business of our Whitehorse (Blackburn) office had a cyber incident.

This supplier is an IT-managed service provider and not owned or related directly to the Barry Plant Group more broadly other than providing their service to our specific local office in the city of Whitehorse.

As soon as we became aware of the incident, we engaged market-leading experts to help assess the situation.

What information has been accessed?

Based on the investigation undertaken, we understand that a limited number of rental tenancy applications (and supporting information) associated with the Whitehorse (Blackburn) office have been compromised or impacted by the incident. The supporting information is the information provided by applicants and may include driver’s licenses, passports, Medicare numbers and other points of identification documents.

What can I do?

Given the nature of the information accessed, there may be risks relating to scam communications via unsolicited emails, phone calls or text messages. Scammers can seem quite believable and impersonate government, police and businesses, including making their telephone numbers and email addresses look legitimate. For further information, visit https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/.

For those impacted or concerned, there are several steps that individuals can take in line with best practice to reduce the risk of serious harm, depending on the type of information accessed. This includes:

• contacting IDCARE, an Australian National Identity & Cyber Support not-for-profit on 1800 595 160 to discuss how to protect your identity;

• visiting the OAIC website for guidance on protecting your identity (https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/your-privacy-rights/tips-to-protect-your-privacy/);

• reviewing statements from financial institutions and immediately contacting them if any suspicious transactions are identified;

• obtaining a free credit monitoring report (for example, from https://www.equifax.com.au/personal/);

• contacting financial institutions, super funds and private health funds to discuss additional security measures; and

• enabling multi-factor authentication where possible for online accounts, including social media.

Who can I contact?

If you have any questions about the incident or wish to discuss anything further, we have set up a dedicated email for you to send these queries to [email protected]. We will endeavour to respond to any queries as soon as possible.