Scams Awareness Week: Cyber experts reveal how hackers piece together information before trying to swindle you

Australians have been warned about the lingering threat they face in the wake of recent cyberhacks .

The country’s largest energy retailer Origin , health service network Partnered Health Group , popular telehealth provider Updoc and apartment hotel chain Quest are among the high-profile targets of online criminals since June.

Names, addresses, banking details, birthdays, contact information, Medicare numbers and private health insurance are among the trove of data confirmed or feared to have been leaked during the disturbing digital attacks.

But a data breach “doesn’t need to hand criminals a complete identity in one file”, AI cybersecurity platform SentinelOne Australia and New Zealand division vice-president Jason Duerden said.

“A name and phone number from one incident can be matched with an address, date of birth or account detail from an earlier breach, then enriched with information from social media, LinkedIn and other public sources,” Duerden told 7NEWS.com.au.

“Cybercriminals can sort huge datasets, identify which records belong to the same person and generate a tailored approach around what they know.”

Digidentity managing director Fred Slikker said the danger is not just confined to the weeks after a breach.

“Stolen information can be retained, traded and combined with data from future incidents,” Slikker said.

“Australians affected by a breach therefore face a continuing risk of impersonation and identity misuse, even after they have changed their password or replaced a compromised card.”

Once cybercriminals believe they have pieced together enough information, they strike.

“An affected customer might receive a call that correctly references their energy provider and address, before being transferred to a fake ‘bank security team’ that already knows partial financial details,” Duerden said.

“Every fact may be real, while the person joining those facts together is a criminal.

“The danger isn’t any single piece of exposed information. It’s the credibility created when several accurate details appear in the same conversation.”

Hustles — including phishing, payment redirection, relationship, and impersonation scams — are lucrative.