Patrick Webster too busy to meet First State

Patrick Webster, a member of the $30 billion fund First State Super who accessed other member’s account records, is too busy to meet with the fund’s chief executive, Michael Dwyer. First State is not expected to press charges against Webster.

Last week, Dwyer had planned to meet Webster, a director and principal consultant at OSI Security Ltd., an information technology security consultant who gained access to 568 member accounts.

But the meeting has yet to occur.

“He’s busy,” says Dwyer.

Webster didn’t return calls seeking comment left on OSI voice mail.

“It’s unlikely we’ll pursue any legal action,” says Dwyer. “There is no evidence he made any transactions and he alerted Pillar Administration, our administrator, who alerted us.”

The security breach has been closed, says Dwyer.

Peter Beck, chief executive of Pillar, says Webster was only able to get access to member statements because he was a First State member. Webster had a password that enabled him to access his own account statement and then others, says Beck.

That triggered warnings to Pillar which the company investigated.

“We were investigating when he called us and told us what he did,” says Beck. “He didn’t get through the firewall.”

First State has about 770,000 members.

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