A NSW Treasury employee has been charged following an alleged internal data breach involving thousands of sensitive government documents.
It is reported that cybercrime detectives from New South Wales Police Force arrested a 45-year-old man on Monday after reports that more than 5,600 restricted files had allegedly been accessed and downloaded.
Police executed a search warrant at a home in Homebush West, seizing electronic devices including a hard drive. The man was charged with accessing or modifying restricted data held on a computer.
Authorities said the data has since been located and secured, adding there was no evidence of an external hack into government systems.
The incident has been declared a “significant cyber incident”, with the NSW government activating a coordinated response led by the Chief Cyber Security Officer.
NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey said the alleged breach was detected through internal monitoring systems, which identified the movement of a large volume of documents to an external server between April 10 and 14.
“It is fair to say multiple government departments, multiple government projects, are affected,” Mr Mookhey said.
“Whether that includes third party information, it’s something that, of course, we are working through as we speak.”
He said the accused had worked at NSW Treasury for about three years within its commercial team, which deals with major government transactions, procurement and private sector negotiations.
“The Treasury commercial team is involved in a lot of the government’s commercial relationships.”
Mr Mookhey added the employee had undergone standard vetting procedures at the time of hiring, with no concerns identified.
The man was granted bail and is due to appear before Downing Centre Local Court on June 3.
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