Software dev accidentally leaks Australian govt documents

An external software developer engaged by a Australian government agency accidentally made a collection of private documents available on the public internet earlier this year, according to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC). The privacy commissioner Carly Kind disclosed the data breach on Tuesday and confirmed the incident was reported to the OAIC in the period between January and June 2025.

The breach was classified as a Notifiable Data Breach due to its potential to cause serious harm to Australians. Kind noted that a third‑party software developer had been engaged to work on the federal government agency’s website and did not state which agency or external provider were involved. “The software developer ran a script on the website, without authorisation from the agency, which caused documents designated as ‘private’ to become publicly available online and on search engines,” the blog post states.