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NSW: NSW govt job website hacked, personal details potentially compromised


26 Jan 2009 6:11 PM

SYDNEY, Jan 26 AAP - The personal details of thousands of job seekers may have been compromised after the NSW government website used to advertise public service roles was hacked.

The Department of Commerce, which administers the jobs.nsw.gov.au site, refused to say if any personal data had been stolen or when the hacking occurred.

But in a statement posted on the website, job seekers were warned not to reply to a spam email "advertising a non-existent job vacancy" and requesting the recipient to reply to receive further information.

A departmental spokeswoman said the matter was now under investigation and the site had been temporarily shut down.

"Clearly people were sent some unauthorised emails and the safest thing for us to do in that case was to shut down the site, offer alternative arrangements for the advertising of government jobs and kick in the procedure for investigation," the spokeswoman told AAP.

"We don't know the level of sophistication we're dealing with at this stage and that is hopefully what we will find out in the next day or so."