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Pareto Phone Cyber Incident Update – 26 September 2023

Media releases

23 August 2023

In 2016, The Smith Family engaged telemarketing company Pareto Phone for a short period of support on a fundraising campaign.

In August 2023, Pareto Phone advised The Smith Family that it had experienced a cyber incident which resulted in an unauthorised third party accessing its systems and some data relating to some of our donors had been published on the dark web.

The forensic investigation undertaken by Pareto Phone has now been finalised. Unfortunately, it has revealed that as a result of this incident, the personal information of some of our donors who were contacted during the fundraising campaign in 2016, and whose details were contained in one of Pareto Phone’s data files, were accessed by the unauthorised third party.

Pareto Phone has now confirmed that The Smith Family donor information accessed is the names, email addresses, suburb, state, postcode (as at 2016), and date of birth of each donor and the street/PO Box address of some donors.

We understand that this will be concerning news, however we can confirm that no other personal data relating to the relevant donors from 2016 has been accessed.

The Smith Family is taking steps to notify those donors whose details were accessed during this incident and to support them. We are also providing information on the steps they can take to be cyber safe and alert to any fraudulent or suspicious activity.

We are taking this matter extremely seriously and we sincerely apologise for any distress or concerns this news may cause. If donors have any questions, please contact us at SupporterCare@thesmithfamily.com.au.

We will continue to keep our donors informed on a timely basis if we receive any further updates from Pareto Phone relating to this matter.

Pareto Phone has reported the incident to the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).

The Smith Family confirms that there has not been any direct impact to The Smith Family's systems as a result of this matter affecting Pareto Phone.

Media contacts:

Andrew Dickson | National Media Manager (National) - 0421 285 529 | andrew.dickson@thesmithfamily.com.au
Carla Horton | Senior Media Advisor (QLD & WA) - 0423 618 776 | carla.horton@thesmithfamily.com.au
Reid Jermyn | Media Advisor (VIC, SA & NT) - 0412 803 566 | reid.jermyn@thesmithfamily.com.au
Ben Chenoweth | Senior Media Advisor (NSW, ACT & TAS) - 0413 346 934 | ben.chenoweth@thesmithfamily.com.au

The Smith Family is a national children’s education charity that helps young Australians experiencing disadvantage to create better futures for themselves through harnessing the power of education. We partner with around 800 Australian schools and work with over 162,000 children and young people experiencing disadvantage access our education support programs to help them overcome . For more information, visit thesmithfamily.com.au