Wynyard council letters warns of identity fraud after Burnie hack

In a letter to current and former employees of the Waratah-Wynyard Council, general manager Shane Crawford wrote that the attack in November "may have resulted in unauthorised access to your tax file number".

The data was stored on a two-year-old WWC backup file which was hosted on a Burnie City Council server.

Speaking on Monday, Mr Crawford said the council considered the risk to be "extremely low", but felt the council had an obligation to inform people of the potential for identity fraud.

"We have privacy disclosures we need to make. We didn't want to go on this [Christmas] break without fulfilling our obligation," he said.

One of the recipients of the letter, who asked to remain anonymous, said they were not overly concerned about identity theft but would have liked to have been notified sooner than December 22.

Mr Crawford said they had hoped to provide people with more information, but the Burnie council investigation into the breach was still ongoing.

"To date, BCC has not provided... any specific evidence as to whether the backup file was or was not accessed or exfiltrated by the intruder," he wrote in the letter.

The letter went on to advise recipients how to recognise if their information was being nefariously used by people who intended identity fraud, and how to prevent it.

"Tax file numbers can be misused by fraudsters to lodge fraudulent tax returns and claim tax refunds.

"Fraudsters may also... attempt to trick you into disclosing other personal information or access credentials."

Mr Crawford said he did not believe the BCC was intentionally withholding information about the breach, that staff had engaged experts and that he was being updated periodically.

Burnie Mayor Steve Kons said it was an operational matter and he could not comment further until the investigation was completed.