14 DAY TRIAL // Pont3, an Australian event organizer, revealed yesterday that an unauthorized party had gained access to its mailing list account and downloaded data about individuals that subscribed to various events organized by the company in the past.
The intrusion took place last Thursday, on October 6, and Pont3 said the attacker gained access to their mailing list management service via a legitimate user account.
The intruder immediately changed the account's password, which triggered an alert that notified the company. Pont3 contacted the mailing list provider and local police.
Intrusion detected, but not before the attacker stole user data
"The provider confirmed that someone had gained unauthorized access to this account and in light of this their security team temporarily suspended our account while the matter was investigated further," Pont3 wrote in an advisory published on its site.
It is unknown at the time of writing if the intrusion is the work of a disgruntled company employee or a hacker who gained access to the account's credentials through other means.
New South Wales police, which is investigating the intrusion, said the attacker had exported mailing list data that included names, mailing addresses, phone numbers, and emails, but not financial details.
People that had subscribed to Pont3 newsletters and events such as the Sydney Running Festival, Electric Run, Sydney Harbour 5k and 10k runs, Warrior Run, and the Manly Inflatable Boat Race are affected.
No financial data compromised
There was no financial information compromised since this type of data is never stored in mailing lists.
Both Pont3 and New South Wales police, who published an advisory on its website as well, are now warning potential victims of impending threats, such as phishing, spam, smishing, pretexting, and other social engineering tactics that fraudsters and scammers regularly employ.
Pont3 said it notified affected users of the intrusion after a week and not immediately at the behest of law enforcement and cyber-security experts looking into the matter.