Kiwis caught up in recruitment site hack

The recruitment firm has two million active users across 190 countries. Photo / 123RF

A data hack of an Aussie recruitment site has led to the compromise of New Zealanders' private information.

Australian online recruitment company PageUp, which has two million active users across 190 countries, confirmed this week that there had been unauthorised activity on its IT system, putting applicants' data at risk.

"Some personal data for employees who currently or previously had access to the client's PageUp instance may be affected," said the company in a post on its website.

The compromised information includes names, emails, physical addresses, telephone numbers and employment information of employees who currently or previously used the service.

Major employers in New Zealand have responded to the hack by notifying their former employees and applicants of the hack.

Bauer Media, Jetstar and Kathmandu are among those to have contacted current and former staff.

Bauer Media's statement said: "It has come to our attention that as a result of a recent security incident at PageUp, a vendor that provides certain hiring-related information services to Bauer Media, some of your personal details may have been accessed by an unauthorised person and possibly disclosed."

Bauer said it had been advised by PageUp that the most critical data categories, including resumes, financial information, Australian tax file numbers, employee performance reports and employment contracts are not affected in this incident.

Bauer sent an email informing users of the breach. Photo / File

The breach also extends well beyond Australia and New Zealand, with the BBC reporting earlier this week that the UK's Information Commissioners office had been notified of the breach.

Clients in the UK included Aldi, Clydesdale Bank and chocolate-maker Lindt.

PageUp said it is working with "leading security firms" to evaluate its systems and identify improvements that might be necessary to ensure this doesn't happen again.

"We take privacy very seriously and are doing everything in our power to make our systems – and most importantly the data we hold – more secure, now and for the long-term," the company said on its site.

PageUp advises those who have been affected by the breach to change their passwords on other online services if they often re-use the same password on multiple accounts.

The company also recommends the enabling multi-factor authentication to make it more difficult for hackers to gain access to your accounts.