Minister’s emails hacked by group
Foreign Affairs Minister Murray Mccully’s email account has been broken into by international hackers collective Anonymous, potentially revealing sensitive cabinet information and cable traffic from foreign posts.
The breach was of Mr Mccully’s private email – a Telecom Xtra account – but concerns were heightened because he had asked that official emails be forwarded to that account.
Prime Minister John Key said he was aware of the breach, which occurred in April last year.
‘‘They were forwarded on from the official system, but it was not about the Ministerial Services email system.’’
As a consequence of the breach, Mr Key had warned other ministers to be more careful, particularly about passwords.
Fairfax Media has been told it was investigated by the Government’s security agencies, including the Government Communications and Security Bureau.
Mr Key was not aware of what information was accessed, but assumed ‘‘if it was really sensitive it would be out by now’’.
Mr Mccully said the breach occurred while he was overseas and the account was closed down.
‘‘We discovered it because people started sending out emails from my account.’’
They had been about ‘‘a whole range of things’’ but mostly making fun at Mr Mccully’s expense.
‘‘I don’t want to be more specific – I don’t want to give people ideas.’’
He said he would go back and check, but his memory was that the emails did not include cabinet papers and cable traffic or anything that gave cause for concern.
It was just one of accounts he operated.
‘‘Ninety-five per cent of the stuff that comes through on that account when I am travelling is media stories . . . then there’s a bit of office administration stuff.’’ Officials in his office were careful and foreign affairs would not normally use that address to forward things to him.
Mr Mccully said he had not used an easily-hacked password.
‘‘Any breach of security is serious.
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‘‘Mr Key made clear his expectations. My office and I are [now] more careful about these things.’’
Mr Key yesterday said he understood the emails had been forwarded by Anonymous to The Dominion Post.
Mr Key’s spokesman said there were no protocols that prevented ministers from having emails forwarded to private accounts.
Telecom acting head of corporate communications Mark Watts declined to comment.