www.cyber.gov.au and the Police
Unlike New Zealand, there are state and federal police in Australia and it can be difficult to determine which one to report the compromise of personal information. In most cases your local police station is the best place to start. If you believe your information may have been compromised or misused online, then the local police are likely to refer you to the Australian Cybercrime Online Reporting Network (ACORN) for Australians.
www.cyber.gov.a and Police report numbers
A www.cyber.gov.a Reference Number (for online events in Aust) and a Police Report Number (for offline events) are critical for someone who believes their personal information is at risk. These numbers are relied upon throughout the response system by service providers and credit reporting agencies to assist them in progressing your protection and response requirements. In relation to police progressing your matter this will depend on a number of factors, least of which is the prospect of an investigative outcome.
Most Australians and New Zealanders in their ordinary lives have had little to do with police. When you experience the compromise of your information and/or its misuse, you not only have to respond to the event but work out which organisations you need to engage, how, why and what to expect. In IDCARE’s experience, every police agency across Australia and New Zealand will differ slightly with how they do things. In Australia, state and territory police have primary responsibility for progressing individual reports of identity and cybercrime. Accessing police report numbers can be at times difficult in some states and the physical copy of a report is something that you may have to pay for. Whilst it may be complex for individual events that originate from offshore to be investigated, it’s important to remember that one person’s report can be a critical contribution in building this picture.
Like any reported matter to the Police, an identity and cybercrime report from an individual or business will need to be assessed and prioritised against other matters. For local police this may be an assessment against reports of assault, abuse and disturbing the peace. For someone who experiences identity and cyber-related crimes the most critical part of your engagement with police is the reporting process and evidencing that the report has been made. The risks to individuals in most cases are much larger and require many more actions that don’t rely on police involvement.
To explore these IDCARE provides clients with Response Plans that are tailored to your needs and are developed in a way that meets your priorities and capabilities. A key step in these plans we develop will almost always be to report your matter to police, because evidencing such reporting is a critical step in the broader response journey most people will confront.
Useful links
Identity Care Australia & New Zealand Ltd (IDCARE) provides identity and cyber security incident response services (the Services) in accordance with the following disclaimer of service:
IDCARE is Australia and New Zealand’s national identity and cyber incident community support service. We are a not-for-profit charity.
While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information in this alert, IDCARE disclaims any liability to any person in respect to any actions performed or not performed as a result of the contents of the the Services or any accompanying data provided. Wider dissemination may be permitted by authority in writing from IDCARE’s Managing Director. If you would like to provide feedback please use our Feedback Form.
iPhones are commonly viewed as being more secure than Android devices.
view fact sheet
It’s good cyber security practice to backup your data and files.
view fact sheet
Identity theft is a type of fraud that involves the compromise of identifying information.
view fact sheet
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QLD: 07 3555 5900
ACT & NSW: 02 8999 3356
VIC: 03 7018 2366
NT, SA & WA : 08 7078 7741
Mon - Fri: 10am - 7pm NZST
AKL: 09 884 4440
IDCARE has access to the Department of Social Services’ Free Interpreting Service, delivered by the Translating and Interpreting Service (TIS National). Access to the Free Interpreting Service is provided to assist you to communicate with non-English speaking people who hold a Medicare card. Please note that the service does not extend to New Zealand citizens or residents who do not hold an Australian Medicare card, or to tourists, overseas students or people on temporary work visas.
New Zealand Relay provides the following services to help Deaf, hearing impaired, speech impaired, Deafblind and standard phone users communicate with their peers.
A TTY user connects to New Zealand Relay via a toll-free number and types their conversation to a Relay Assistant (RA) who then reads out the typed message to a standard phone user (hearing person).
The RA relays the hearing person's spoken words by typing them back to the Textphone (TTY) User.
The National Relay Service (NRS) is a government initiative that allows people who are deaf, hard of hearing and/or have a speech impairment to make and receive phone calls.
The NRS is available 24 hours a day, every day and relays more than a million calls each year throughout Australia.
Ask our Case managers for more information on how this service will help you.
IDCARE as a registered charity does not ask individuals to donate or pay for our front line services. We are not a charity that can receive tax deductible donations.
We rely on organisations that care enough about you to care about us to keep our charitable service going. Proudly these organisations are displayed above and on our Subscriber Organisations page. If you are asked for payment you are encouraged to report this to IDCARE via our Report Phishing page.
