On 24 April, Byron Shire Council experienced a significant incident when an upgrade to their document management system inadvertently made some internal development-related documents publicly accessible through the DA Tracker portal. The DA Tracker is an online platform that enables users to monitor the progress of development applications. Upon discovering the issue, Council swiftly suspended access to the DA Tracker and successfully removed the internal documents from the public portal by 29 April.
Colin Baker, Council’s Manager of Business Systems and Technology, emphasized that an investigation is underway to ascertain the exact nature and extent of the documents that were unintentionally published. The investigation aims to identify the scope of the incident and understand how the exposure occurred. Baker assured that Council is committed to resolving the matter comprehensively and transparently.
To ensure a thorough response, Council has enlisted the assistance of the NSW State Government’s Cyber Incident Response team. They are working collaboratively to investigate the potential data breach and its implications. If the investigation confirms that sensitive data was compromised, Council is prepared to notify any affected individuals directly and comply with all mandatory reporting requirements.
Customers who have concerns regarding this incident are encouraged to contact Colin Baker for more information. Council takes the privacy of its constituents very seriously and is dedicated to addressing the situation with the utmost care and urgency to protect the personal information of its users.
