14 DAY TRIAL // A number of Australians whose details became exposed after the data breach that affected ABC’s Making Australia Happy TV series website are complaining that they’ve started receiving unsolicited newsletters from Ausboots, a company that provides Ugg boots.
According to The Sydney Morning Herald, some of the recipients of the Ausboot March newsletter said they had provided their email addresses on the Making Australia Happy website. The data was leaked by the hacker on February 27 and the newsletter was sent out around one week later.
In addition, the postcode details listed in the emails also matched the ones provided on the recently hacked ABC site. Some users made the connection because their postcodes had changed since 2010, when the show was aired.
When initially contacted, the owner of Ausboots said she would look into the matter, but failed to provide any details.
Representatives of the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) have confirmed to The Sydney Morning Herald that they’ve received a small number of complaints, but it’s uncertain if an investigation will be launched.
For now, there are two plausible scenarios. Ausboots either got the email addresses from the files published on the Internet by the hacker, or the company purchased the distribution list from a marketing firm.
In any case, MailChimp, the US email service provider that distributed the newsletter, revealed that Ausboots’ account was shut down on March 7 because of complaints.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Make Australia Happy website was breached by a hacker called Phr0zenMyst. The hackers have leaked the details of around 50,000 users in protest against an interview that ABC had with the controversial Dutch politician Geert Wilders.
It was later determined that the site might have been hacked since as far back as October 2011.