The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) today confirmed a cyber incident has affected one of the servers it uses.

The regulator said that it became aware of the incident on 15 January 2021. The incident is related to Accellion software used by ASIC to transfer files and attachments. It involved unauthorised access to a server which contained documents associated with recent Australian credit licence applications.

While the investigation is ongoing, it appears that there is some risk that some limited information may have been viewed by the threat actor. At this time the regulator has not seen evidence that any Australian credit licence application forms or any attachments were opened or downloaded.

As a precaution, and to protect information and systems, ASIC has disabled access to the affected server. The watchdog is working on alternative arrangements for submitting credit application attachments which will be implemented shortly. No other ASIC technology infrastructure has been impacted or breached.

The regulator notes that it is working with Accellion and has notified the relevant agencies as well as impacted parties to respond to and manage the incident.

ASIC’s IT team and cyber security advisers engaged by ASIC are undertaking a detailed forensic investigation and working to bring systems back online safely.