Australian superannuation funds have experienced a suspected cyber attack, with members facing account access issues and losses in retirement savings.
AustralianSuper, the nation’s largest fund with over 3.5 million members, reported 600 attempted cyber attacks in the past month. In a concerning incident, four members lost a combined $500,000 from their retirement savings.
“We are experiencing a high volume of traffic to our call centre, online accounts, and mobile app, causing intermittent outages,” AustralianSuper confirmed on Friday.
The fund stressed that, despite some members seeing a $0 balance, their accounts remain secure.
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Members told ABC News they have been unable to log in to their accounts online or via mobile apps.
The attacks are not isolated to AustralianSuper. Other funds, including Rest, Hostplus, Insignia, and Australian Retirement, experienced similar attempts over the weekend. The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) said most cyber attacks were repelled, but a number of members were affected.
“Funds are contacting all affected members and assisting anyone whose data may have been compromised,” ASFA stated.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese acknowledged the issue while on the campaign trail.
“I have been informed about that,” he said, noting that cyber attacks occur in Australia roughly every six minutes. Albanese emphasised the government’s commitment to combating cyber crime.
In the Medibank case, sensitive member details were leaked to the dark web.
Officials from the impacted superannuation funds are collaborating with the National Cyber Security Coordinator to investigate the breaches.