ITWire

In an email send to subscribers, it said: "We are writing to notify you that the Department [DBCDE - which operates the service] has been advised by a former external contractor that a DVD which included information provided by Stay Smart Online Alert Service subscribers was lost in Australia Post's system, after being posted on 11 April 2012."

The email went on to re-assure subscribers "The Department has no reason to believe that this information has been found and misused by any third party and we do not believe that there is a privacy risk. We are informing subscribers consistent with a 'best practice' approach for privacy matters."

However one would expect 'best practice' to include prompt notification: it has taken DBCDE almost three months to get around to notifying subscribers.

Furthermore it is not clear from the email whether all user data was encrypted, or only passwords. It said: "The original contractor has informed the Department that information on the missing DVD included subscribers': usernames; email addresses; memorable phrases; and passwords which are unreadable (as cryptographic hash)."

And the email suggests: "If you have used the same username, memorable phrase and/or password for other websites or services you may wish to consider whether these need to be changed."

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