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IPH Ltd, an intellectual property (IP) services provider, reported that it was a victim of a data breach just recently. The company detected the breach in a portion of its IT systems. The attack makes IPH the latest Australian company to be attacked ever since the Medibank and Optus attacks last year.
IPH is the largest IP services group in Asia-Pacific and employs 1,200 employees across 25 countries, including Australia, Indonesia, New Zealand, China and Malaysia. The services group consists of AJ Park, Pizzeys, Smart & Biggar, along with Spruson & Ferguson and Griffith Hack. The group’s patent market share is around 34 per cent, where Griffith Hack manages more than 33,000 trademarks and has filed over 64,000 patents.
According to the company’s official report, it “detected unauthorised access to document management systems, which include administrative documents, and some client documents and correspondence, at its head office and two member firms, Spruson & Ferguson Australia and Griffith Hack.”
The attack prompted a two-day trading halt as its stocks plummeted 12 per cent. The company also stated that it is still investigating if there was actual data stolen, or if it is still ongoing. “Based on preliminary analysis, it appears the incident is primarily limited to the document management systems (DMSs) of the IPH head office and two IPH member firms in Australia and the practice management systems (PMSs) of these two member firms.”
The company immediately acted to secure its IT systems and has also notified the Australian Cyber Security Centre. Cybersecurity experts working on the case said that the information in the DMSs are documents relating to the administration of the two firms as well as multiple client documents and correspondence. IPH has yet to determine if there was an unauthorised third party that accessed documents.
The company’s official statement also apologises to its clients and the community and promises to keep its clients and shareholders updated with the ongoing investigations.
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