High-profile Australian government officials victims of Yahoo data breach

More than 3,000 hacked Yahoo log-in credentials were linked to high-profile Australian government officials. US security company Infoarmor has confirmed the information alerting the Department of Defence. According to the Arizona-based cyber-security firm, a hacker organisation from Eastern Europe stole the data from Yahoo in 2013.

The cyber-security firm named the victims of the data breach including Liberal senator Cory Bernardi, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews, Liberal MP Andrew Hastie, Social Services Minister Christian Porter, Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen and Shadow Health Minister Catherine King. It also confirmed that Australian Federal Police officers were affected by the hacking. Diplomats, judges and magistrates were reportedly affected.

InfoArmor’s chief intelligence officer Andrew Komarov said the hackers were motivated by profit and it was not influenced by a state-run entity.The firm has confirmed that the Yahoo accounts were sold for the equivalent of $401,400 each to cyber criminals and foreign intelligence agency. Komarov said that it was difficult to identify the number of employees who have been compromised by the data breach.

The hacked database includes email addresses, passwords, recovery accounts and other personal-identifying data. Cyber Security Special Advisor Alastair MacGibbon said when a victim recycled a password, criminals could exploit the account's content. Komarov said that the group has no presence on any marketplaces and forums. However, he said that two proxies were used including and English-speaking and Russian-speaking underground. He said that data were sold to some trusted channels indirectly. The firm said that the cyber criminals have serious contacts in the underground. The Department of Defence said via NSW Police that it notified its employees last October after it receiving information about the hack.

Most Government officials affected by the Yahoo data breach declined to comment. However, Porter's spokeswoman said that the social services minister have never used a Flickr account. Meanwhile, Bernardi's spokesperson said that the senator has no Yahoo account. ​