Staff member allegedly accessed and downloaded more than 5,600 sensitive government documents
A staff member of the New South Wales Treasury has been arrested and charged over allegedly accessing and downloading more than 5,600 sensitive government documents.
The NSW Police arrested the 45-year-old public servant in Sydney's Central Business District on Monday afternoon, and seized electronic devices including a hard drive at his home in Homebush West.
NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey said the public servant involved is a NSW Treasury staff member who has been an employee of the agency's commercial team for around three years.
The team is involved in the state government's commercial relationships, as well as government transactions and negotiations with the private sector.
The public servant's arrest comes after the Treasury reported to the police on Sunday that it had detected a suspected transfer of a "substantial cache of documents containing confidential commercial and financial information" to an external server.
"The files cover multiple NSW government departments and projects," Mookhey said.
The government described the situation as a "significant cyber incident," but noted that there is no current impact to any of the state's government services.
In a statement, the police said it had located and secured the alleged stolen data, and there was no compromise to the agency's system.
The public servant has been charged with access/modify restricted data held in a computer. He was also suspended without pay, according to local reports.
He was granted conditional bail and will face Downing Centre Local Court on 3 June.
Meanwhile, Mookhey said the NSW Chief Cyber Security Officer is now coordinating with the government's whole-of-agency response, as per the state's cyber security plan.
