News

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is aware that the details of a small number of Australian passports have been published on the Dark Web following a ransomware attack. 

The Australian Passport Office is contacting impacted passport holders. 

Valid passports affected by this attack are still safe to use for international travel. Your passport number cannot be used by someone else to obtain a new passport. Robust controls are used to protect passports from identity takeover, including sophisticated facial recognition technology. 

See our separate page on protecting against scams and identity theft for more advice on how to safeguard your personal information. 

You can also seek help from IDCARE, a not-for-profit organisation that specialises in providing advice and support to Australians on how to respond to identity theft.   

More advice on what you can do to protect yourself and your family from cyber security incidents is available on the Australian Cyber Security Centre’s (ACSC) webpage at: www.cyber.gov.au.  

Did you know that Australia issues passports to sex and gender diverse customers? 

We can record your gender as ‘X’ if you don’t identify exclusively as either male or female.

While Australia recognises the gender X marker in passports, not all countries do. This may cause difficulties for gender X passport holders depending on your overseas destination.

Find more information about sex and gender diverse passports on our website. 

Due to a technical issue, yesterday (Wednesday 21 February) some customers received duplicate copies of email and SMS notifications from the Australian Passport Office.

While this appears to be an isolated issue, we’re investigating to ensure it doesn’t occur again.

We apologise for any confusion this may have caused.

It’s not always easy to spot a scam. Scams are becoming more sophisticated, and scammers are constantly finding new ways to trick people.

Your passport has personal information that makes it a target for scams and identity theft. You can protect your passport by:

• keeping it in a safe and secure place
• not sharing your passport details online
• only disclosing your passport information to trusted organisations with a legitimate need for it.

The best way to avoid a scam is:

• Stop – don’t give money or personal information to anyone if unsure.
• Think – ask yourself if the message or call may be fake
• Protect – act quickly if something feels wrong.

Find out more about protecting against scams and identity theft on our website.

You might think we’re a little fussy when it comes to passport photos. That’s because we want you to enjoy your holiday!

Passport photos need to meet strict international standards. If we ask you to provide new photos, it’s because the ones you gave us don’t meet these standards. You may have trouble crossing borders if your passport is issued with a sub-standard photo.

Find out more about the photo requirements on our website.