Fraudsters exploit a ‘side entrance’ in myGov to steal from Australians.

A new report on the security of Australians’ myGov accounts has uncovered significant vulnerabilities, revealing how hackers have exploited account-linking technology to steal from Centrelink, Medicare, and Australian Taxation Office accounts.

Hackers have been found to exploit Medicare and Centrelink accounts via the myGov platform by linking them to fraudulent myGov accounts, making bogus tax claims worth thousands of dollars, or falsely claiming support payments.

This tactic, known as “unauthorised linking,” occurs when a genuine myGov customer’s member service account is linked to a ‘fake’ myGov account by another party without authorization.