Incident: Australian horse riding organisations caught up in cyber attack impacting 10,000 people | The Courier Mail
Australian Event Management Incident, 06 July 2023
Australian critical infrastructure company Ventia has been breached in an online attack
Information including names, email addresses, home addresses, phone numbers and bank details
Event Secretary, an organisation used by major horse riding and equestrian clubs to host events, had its data published on an online forum after it refused to pay ransom. Unfortunately, Event Secretary was the platform that several major Australian horse riding organisations used to book and enter into equestrian competitions and this has exposed riders and other admin users to hackers.
Two major organisations in Australia’s equestrian industry are understood to have been caught up in the security breach, news.com.au understands. The Horse Riding Clubs Association of Victoria (HRCAV) and Equestrian Victoria used Event Secretary to host various events.
A spokesperson of Event Secretary, the victim of the cyber security incident, said the hack had occurred nearly a year ago. “We followed all the procedures the government had in place. We certainly notified all the people concerned within 24 hours,” the spokesperson said.
The data breach happened via a third party entry platform and was not Equestrian Australia or Equestrian Victoria data or related to our membership. According to a spokesperson from Event Secretary, the hack was a result of an API breach, and the organisation’s systems were under control within 24 hours. The hacking group followed up with extortion attempts, saying that it had stolen data and that if the group did not pay ransom, it would publish the data on the dark web.
