Urgent: Further Information on Privacy

25 January 2011

Dear [FirstName],

Further to my communiqué to you on Friday, I know this incident has worried many members, both for reasons of personal safety and for fraud. I again apologise this has occurred and want to keep you informed of the steps the AASW is taking to address the problems. I also want to let you know what you can do.

Some members have raised issues over the legal implications of this incident. I would like to reassure you that we have taken legal advice.

You may have noticed that we closed the website over the weekend. We took this additional precaution to ensure that there was no way any other membership detail could be accessed before the membership management consultants could perform a full check on the site. This has now been done and the website and member manager reactivated. The membership management system designers have verified the security of the site and its data. They advised however that members may experience an increase in spam as a result of this breach.

The designers confirmed that no credit card or banking details for any members are held on the site and therefore cannot be accessed through this breach. Only those who pay their membership fees by direct debit have financial data stored on our site, but this can only be accessed by an administrator. Administrator passwords have been changed as an extra precaution.

While we have been advised that the system is very secure, it is timely to remind you to change your membership password in the member area. All passwords on electronic systems should be changed regularly.

Tips on setting a password:
• Avoid obvious passwords, such as Password1, your middle name or your date of birth
• Avoid words which are easy for someone to guess, like your children’s names or your street’s name
• Avoid anything that looks like a date of birth
• Use a mixture of letters and numbers – for example 4jd87ws
• Use a mixture of upper and lower case – for example 4Jd87wS

I will keep you informed of any future developments in this matter as they arise.

Kind regards
Kandie

Kandie Allen-Kelly
BSocWk MPhil MAASW (Acc)

Chief Executive Officer
Australian Association of Social Workers
P.O. Box 4956
Kingston ACT 2604
Tel: +61 2 6232 3903
Membership: 1800 630 124
ceo@aasw.asn.au
www.aasw.asn.au