News

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) is aware of a cyber incident impacting the Australian energy and internet provider, Sumo.  

Sumo’s investigation into the cyber incident has found the personal details of approximately 40,000 customers were compromised, including approximately 3,000 Australian passport numbers.     

Sumo is contacting impacted individuals directly and continues to investigate the matter to determine the full extent of the cyber-attack.    

Affected passports are still safe to use for international travel. Your passport number cannot be used to obtain a new passport. Robust controls are used to protect passports from identity takeover, including sophisticated facial-recognition technology.   

See our 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.  

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) is aware of a cyber incident impacting Aussizz Group. 

Aussizz Group’s investigation into the cyber incident has found the personal details of a number of their clients were compromised, including copies of Australian and foreign passports.    

Aussizz Group is contacting impacted individuals directly and continues to investigate the matter to determine the full extent of the cyber-attack.    

Affected Australian passports are still safe to use for international travel. Your passport number cannot be used to obtain a new passport. Robust controls are used to protect passports from identity takeover, including sophisticated facial-recognition technology.  

See our 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.  

If you’re a foreign passport holder whose personal details have been compromised, you should contact the government that issued your passport for further advice what to do.  Please refer to DFAT’s list of foreign government representatives based in Australia.  

As announced in the Federal Budget last night (14 May), eligible Australian-based customers will have access to a new expedited passport service called ‘Fast Track (5-day processing)’ from 1 July 2024. 

The service will guarantee your passport application is processed within 5 business days of a complete passport application being received by us. It will cost an extra $100 on top of the regular passport application fee.  

This service will be offered alongside our existing ‘Priority (2-day processing)’ service, which guarantees passport processing within 2 business days.  

People should continue to allow at least 6 weeks to get their passport. If you need a passport quicker, you will have more options for expedited service from 1 July 2024.  

Give yourself plenty of time if you need to apply for a child passport and don’t have one of the following:

• the consent of each person who has parental responsibility for the child
• an Australian court order that permits the child to have a travel document, travel internationally, or live or spend time with a person outside Australia.

You can still lodge an application if you don’t have full consent or a relevant court order. Your application will take longer to assess as we need to decide whether you meet our special circumstances.

Find out more about applying with incomplete consent on our website.

Your passport is a valuable document. Make sure you keep it safe and secure. You should:

• know where it is at all times
• keep it dry
• don't alter it in any way
• only give your passport information to trusted organisations with a legitimate need for it.

Your passport has key personal information that makes it a target for identity thieves. Find out more about protecting against scams and identity theft on our website.