NSW Police makes arrest over LandMark White cyber incidents

LandMark White has announced today that the NSW Police Force Cybercrime Squad made an arrest in connection with the cyber incidents it suffered throughout 2019.

"We have been working closely with the NSW Police Force Cybercrime Squad since the breach to identify the person behind this incident, and we are grateful that the person arrested today was not one of our employees," LandMark White told shareholders.

"We believe we were deliberately targeted by someone with an intent to damage our business and reputation. We are working with the Cybercrime Squad to understand the motives for these actions," it stated.

The publicly-listed property valuation firm said the investigations revealed the breach was carried out by someone with trusted inside access.

The NSW Police said in a statement, detectives arrested a 49-year-old software contractor on 2 October.

After the arrest, a search warrant was executed at a home at Rozelle, and a crime scene warrant at a business data centre at Ultimo.

In January, 137,500 valuation records were posted online. This was followed by another leak in March which included 76,873 customer information files.

The firm revealed at the time that a number of internal documents had been posted on a document-sharing service. The company claimed the publication of the documents was a deliberate act of sabotage and says it has reported the incident to NSW Police.

"We have made considerable investment and system enhancements this year. We are fully compliant with the International Standard ISO27001 – Information Security Management, and will soon be externally certified to this Standard."

After losing many customers as a result of the data breaches, LandMark White said it was pleased that a number of financial institutions have reinstated it to their panels of valuation providers.

"We have been a trusted member of the industry for nearly 40 years and we look forward to putting this incident behind us and getting back to work with all our clients and partners across Australia."