Cyber Security
Early Settler investigation into online data claims
Early Settler has become aware that a third party has named our company online alongside claims they have accessed some of our customers’ contact information.
We understand this news may cause concern and wish to assure our customers that we are investigating this as a priority, including a review of our security systems as a precautionary measure.
From the claims published online, we understand the impacted customer data includes names, phone numbers, email addresses, delivery addresses and dates of birth.
Importantly, there is no suggestion that any payment details are involved, and we can assure our customers that we do not hold credit/bank card details.
From our investigation to date, we believe the impacted customer information subject to unauthorised access originated from an archived database from July 2022. Any customer information collected after this date would not be involved.
Additionally, from our review of the archived database, we can confirm it only contains complete dates of birth for a very small number of customers and month of birth for some customers.
We apologise for any concern that this news may cause and would like to assure our customers that we have no evidence of any broader impact to our systems or information.
We recommend that our customers remain vigilant against the risk of potential phishing emails or scam calls which are often the most likely risk associated with unauthorised access to contact information. We provide some cyber safety guidance at the end of this statement which outlines some steps our customers may want to take as a precautionary measure.
We take cyber security seriously and are committed to keeping all our stakeholders updated as we work to respond to this incident. We have also notified the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) and the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) of the incident.
We would like to assure our customers that we are taking all appropriate steps to remediate this situation as swiftly as possible and have also implemented sophisticated monitoring systems to ensure we are aware of any further developments.
We understand this news may cause concern to our customers and would like to thank you for your ongoing support as we work to resolve this as swiftly as possible. If you have any questions, our dedicated support team can be contacted by email on customersupport@earlysettler.com.au
Cyber safety guidance
There are steps you can take to help protect yourself against scams:
- being aware of email, telephone and text-based scams and refraining from sharing personal information unless you are certain about who you are sharing it with;
- checking your email for suspicious activity for example, if you are locked out of your account, find strange emails in your sent folder, or receive password change notifications;
- periodically changing your passwords;
- using a password manager for remembering multiple account passwords;
- enabling multi-factor authentication for your online accounts where possible and ensuring you have up-to-date anti-virus software installed on any device you use to access your online accounts;
- avoiding clicking on links in suspicious text messages or emails;
- not responding to phone calls asking for remote access to your computer;
- checking your bank accounts for strange or unusual activity and contacting your bank immediately if you see anything suspicious.
More information is available here:
- Australian Cyber Security Centre: https://www.cyber.gov.au/learn-basics.
- Act Now, Stay Secure: https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/act-now-stay-secure.
- Scamwatch: https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/get-help/protect-yourself-from-scams/.
- ID Support NSW: https://www.nsw.gov.au/id-support-nsw/be-prepared
- Office of the Australian Information Commissioner: https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/your-privacy-rights/data-breaches/Identity-fraud