On September 22, 2022, Optus, the 2nd largest mobile operator in Australia, made the security breach public by stating that a hacker might have accessed users’ personal data.
Optus said the breach affected up to 11,000,000 customers who used their banking card details to purchase phones or services. The company declined to say how many customers may have had their personal data stolen. The company also said it had not seen any evidence of fraud so far.
The hacker withdrew his extortion demands
A hacker going by the moniker “Optus data” posted a sample of the stolen information on the Breached hacking site on September 23, 2022, and demanded $1,000,000 (USD) in ransom money from the company or the information on 11,000,000 clients will be made public.
Names, dates of birth, mobile numbers, email addresses, postal addresses, licence and passport numbers,(except account passwords or financial details), are included in this data.
After receiving more scrutiny from law enforcement, the hacker retracted their extortion demands. The threat actor also offered his regrets to the 10,200 victims whose private information had already been exposed on a hacker forum.
AFP (Australian Federal Police) released a statement saying “We are aware of reports of stolen data being sold on the dark web and that is why the AFP is monitoring the dark web using a range of specialist capabilities. Criminals, who use pseudonyms and anonymising technology, can’t see us but I can tell you that we can see them.”
The criminal listed a Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) account to receive the money, which the bank has blocked already.
What is the Response of Authorities?
Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, Optus CEO said in a Press Release that “We are devastated to discover that we have been subject to a cyberattack that has resulted in the disclosure of our customer’s personal information to someone who shouldn’t see it,
“As soon as we knew, we took action to block the attack and began an immediate investigation. While not everyone may be affected and our investigation is not yet complete, we want all of our customers to be aware of what has happened as soon as possible so that they can increase their vigilance. We are very sorry and understand customers will be concerned.
Please be assured that we are working hard, and engaging with all the relevant authorities and organisations, to help safeguard our customers as much as possible.”
Through a special portal on its website, Optus is still keeping its users informed of the progress. Additionally, it provided all impacted people with a complimentary 12-month subscription to Equifax’s credit monitoring and identity protection service.
Tom Koutsantonis, the minister responsible for infrastructure, transport, energy, and mining in South Australia, stated today that revised driver’s licences would be provided free of charge to everyone affected by the Optus data leak.
The stolen driver’s licences will no longer be valid because threat actors might use them to fabricate phoney documents that match records in the state’s database.
How to protect your company’s data from a potential data breach?
Data breaches can happen to any business. In fact, one in every four companies has experienced a data breach in the past year alone.
But if you take the right precautions, you can protect your company’s sensitive data from falling into the wrong hands. Here are some steps you can take:
1. Secure your network.
Make sure that only authorized users have access to your network, and make sure they have strong passwords that they change regularly. Also make sure that you have up-to-date anti-virus software on your computers, as well as regular updates for all operating systems.
2. Encrypt your data.
Encryption means scrambling up data so that it is unreadable unless someone knows how to unscramble it—and only those who should be able to see it will be able to do so! You can encrypt sensitive information like passwords and credit card numbers using tools.
3. Back up everything!
All of your employees should back up their computers at least once a week (or more often if possible), so that if something happens to one of them then all of their work will still be safe somewhere else besides where it was stored originally.
Bottom line
As the global community becomes more aware of cybercrime the importance of protecting your company’s data from hackers and corrupt employees is becoming increasingly relevant. Take into consideration all threats potentially facing your company data and employ a comprehensive plan to protect it from one or all of these threats.
A small business that wants to safeguard its customers’ data can take advantage of outsourcing managed IT services such as hardware maintenance, software updates, data backups, and security issues to a professional IT Support Services firm.
Contact us today on 1300 381 230
