Big superannuation funds could face fines and possible class actions over a cyber breach which led to four members of one super fund losing half a million dollars combined. It's led to questions over whether funds have properly protected member's accounts.
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00:00Members of some of the country's biggest superannuation funds are still struggling to access their
00:08accounts after a suspected cyber breach.
00:12Four Australian supermembers have lost half a million dollars combined.
00:17The fund says it's working with those members but won't say whether they'll get their money
00:21back.
00:22There would be some liability on the superannuation firm to ensure that their members' accounts
00:29were protected, so I think it's just a bit early to get down that path.
00:33With only those of retirement age able to access funds, it's likely to be over 60-year-olds
00:40who've been victims of the attack.
00:42The ABC has heard from members who are angry and confused about what's happening with their
00:47retirement savings.
00:49And they've raised questions over whether their accounts were properly protected.
00:54Australian Super says it has an ongoing program for improving cyber security.
00:59And it has a two-factor authentication process for a number of interactions.
01:05Some are required, others are opt-in.
01:08It would make a lot more sense for multi-factor authentication to be the norm, as opposed
01:13to an opt-in.
01:14While it will take time to investigate what's happened, like Medibank and Optus, the superfunds
01:21could face class actions or fines in the wake of the security breach.
01:26Financial services is one of the most highly regulated sectors in Australia and there are
01:30heavy fines for breaches of their different obligations.
01:35Superfunds responsible for trillions of dollars are being warned to remain vigilant to increasing
01:40cyber attacks.