Townsville City Council confirms limited exposure to Typeform security breach
Date published: 6 July 2018
Townsville City Council has confirmed it has been notified about a security breach on a company used by Council.
Council is a customer of Typeform – which has suffered a data breach – along with other organisations such as Cairns Regional Council, the Tasmanian Electoral Commission and Airtasker.
Council used the external platform to manage entry forms for the 2018 Percivals Portrait Painting Prize.
Chief Financial Officer Matt Thomson said none of Council’s own IT infrastructure or systems were breached.
“Council’s systems have not been affected by this data breach as it only relates to information held by Typeform – an external technology company – on behalf of Council,” Mr Thomson said.
Despite affecting only a small number of people in total, limited personal information has potentially been breached. No financial information was collected using Typeform.
Typeform have identified compromised data may include names address, phone numbers, email, and dates of birth – which were collected as part of the competition terms and conditions.
Mr Thomson said Percivals entrants were notified about Typeform’s data breach yesterday.
“Council staff investigated the issue as soon as we were made aware of the Typeform breach to ensure everyone potentially affected was notified,” Mr Thomson said.
“At this stage Typeform have indicated that they have reviewed the breach and addressed the initial security problem.
“Council, along with many other private companies and government organisations, has used Typeform to collect and store limited personal date.
“No banking details were in the information stored by Typeform on Townsville City Council’s behalf.
“If anyone who has entered the 2018 Percivals Portrait Prize wants further information about the Typeform data breach, please contact Council.”
Based on the data types exposed, guidelines from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner indicate this breach would be unlikely to cause any serious harm to those affected.
