NSW Treasury employee charged after 5600 government documents allegedly stolen
A NSW Treasury employee has been charged after allegedly accessing and illegally downloading more than 5600 sensitive government documents.
Police charged the 45-year-old man with accessing or altering restricted data held on a computer following a raid on a Homebush West home Monday afternoon, during which police seized electronic devices including a hard drive.
In the statement, officers said that the allegedly stolen data was detected and secured and that there was no external intervention in the agency’s system.
Addressing the media, NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey said the alleged breach was detected through internal security monitoring, which detected “a large cache of documents allegedly being moved” between 10 and 14 April.
The matter was then “effectively escalated” on Friday, April 17.
“It’s fair to say that more than one government department, more than one government project is affected,” he said.
“Whether that includes third-party information or not, that’s obviously something we’re working on as we speak.”
Mr Mookhey said the person had been a NSW Treasury employee for about three years and worked in the Treasury’s commercial team.
Mr Mookhey said they were not senior executive service members and were “effectively a rank-and-file employee”.
“The Treasury commercial team, for better term, is involved in many of the government’s commercial affairs,” he said.
“They also participate in various major government transactions or negotiations with the private sector and are involved in government procurement.”
Mr Mookhey said the employee was subject to all routine inspections and “no issues were noted at the time”.
“I’m not going to go into the biography of a specific person … but a person who works in the Treasury generally has a background in finance, economics or politics, and that person’s background is consistent with that,” he said.
The Chaded man was granted bail to appear before Downing Center Local Court on June 3.
