Oxfam 2021 Data Breach
Nonprofit / Charity / Donor Data / Consumer / Australia
Oxfam Australia 2021 Data Breach: 1.8 Million Supporters Exposed
Australian affiliate of the global anti-poverty charity Oxfam.
Confirmed · ObscureIQ Intelligence
Breach Risk Index i
40/100
Lower riskHigher risk
Moderate: notable exposure with meaningful misuse potential.
Data Sensitivity i
ElevatedExposed data raises the risk of fraud, targeting, and impersonation. Proactive steps are warranted.
1.8MRecords
2021Year
The Breach Risk Index (BRI) is a proprietary 0–100 score rating how dangerous a breach is right now, based on how recently the data has been circulating on the dark web and how valuable it is to attackers.
Crucial data exposed
FinancialBank Account Number; Credit Card
AddressPhysical address
Breach Summary
On 20 January 2021, an external party unlawfully accessed an Oxfam Australia supporter database. For most affected supporters the exposed data included names, addresses, dates of birth, emails, phone numbers, gender and, in some cases, donation history; no passwords were compromised. The stolen data was later offered for sale online, affecting roughly 1.8 million supporters.
Full threat analysis, exploitation vectors, and principal guidance below.
10 additional sections · verified field analysis · defensive doctrine
Querying breach corpus…
Cross-referencing exposed field types…
Resolving threat-actor attribution…
Compiling principal risk advisory…
1.8M records analyzed
About Oxfam
Oxfam Australia is the Australian affiliate of the global anti-poverty confederation Oxfam, engaging supporters through campaigns, petitions, donations and former retail shops.
Why They Hold Your Data
A charity supporter database holds donor and supporter identity and contact data, dates of birth, gender, and donation and purchase history.
Recent Developments
Oxfam Australia disclosed the incident in 2021 and later entered an enforceable undertaking with the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) over its handling of personal information.
Data Points Exposed
9 verified field types
Bank Account Number Critical
Credit Card Critical
Date of Birth High
Email Address
Full Name
Gender
Phone Number
Physical address High
Transaction History
Breach Impact
The breach led to an OAIC investigation and enforceable undertaking and reputational damage for a trust-dependent charity.
Exploitation & Downstream Threats
• Financial fraud using exposed financial profile data | • Identity verification bypass using name + date of birth combination | • SIM swap attacks where phone numbers are present | • Targeted phishing campaigns using exposed email addresses | • Doxxing risk from physical address exposure
Principal Risk Advisory
What this means for a principal
A financial-institution breach: account, wealth or payment data supports direct fraud and highly credible financial-impersonation scams. For a high-profile principal this is targeting-grade, not merely identity-theft-grade: the combination lets an adversary locate, impersonate, or pressure the principal with little additional work.
What You Should Do
- Treat the home address as exposed: review mail and package handling and physical-security routines, and brief household staff to verify unusual requests.
- Guard against SIM-swap and vishing: add a carrier port-out PIN and verify any 'support' calls independently.
- Do not use unofficial 'am I affected' lookups; several are themselves harvesting operations.
How ObscureIQ Can Help
- Corpus confirmation: determine whether and where the principal (plus household and staff) appear in this dataset and which specific fields are exposed for them.
- Exposure mapping and footprint neutralization: cross-reference against broker-available data and suppress still-removable elements, prioritizing address and phone, since this record re-seeds broker networks.
- ThreatWatch tuned to this incident's identifiers and misuse pattern (impersonation and targeting patterns, not generic credential monitoring).
Protect Yourself
Check If You're Affected
Enter your email to check whether your data appears in this breach. We’ll send a 6-digit code to confirm it’s your address.
Get Free Breach Alerts
Be the first to know when new breaches are disclosed. Free forever — confirm your email with a 6-digit code.
High-Risk? Get an Exposure Audit
Executives, public figures, and high-visibility operators can receive tailored exposure intelligence and hardening guidance.
Request Consultation