Nation of thieves: Chinese contractor for Australia’s AMP pleads guilty to stealing data

• The Chinese man was arrested as he tried to board a flight to China
• Financial planning company had noticed suspicious activity on its network

Reuters

A Chinese contractor for Australian financial planner AMP has been charged with stealing the confidential data of 20 of its customers, police and the company said on Thursday.
The man, named by authorities as Yi Zheng, 28, pleaded guilty to the offence in a Sydney court on Thursday, the Australian Associated Press reported.
New South Wales state police said they began investigating the breach after AMP’s cybersecurity staff noticed suspicious activity on the company network in December.
The investigation led them to Yi, who had downloaded 23 identity-related documents belonging to 20 customers and sent them to his personal email account, police said.
Yi was arrested as he tried to board a flight to China on January 17, police said, adding that they seized mobile phones, SIM cards, a laptop and other electronic storage devices from his luggage.
He was charged “with possessing identity info to commit an indictable offence”, police said, without saying what the man planned to do with the customer information.
“Identity information is an extremely valuable commodity on the black market and dark web, and anyone – whether an individual or business – who stores this data needs to ensure it is protected,” New South Wales’ cybercrime unit commander, Detective Superintendent Matt Craft, said in a statement.
An AMP spokeswoman said the data breach involved a small amount of customer information and there was no evidence the data was further compromised.
The company had contacted all affected customers, put extra security controls in place for them and notified the relevant regulators.
Yi’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.