‘It wasn’t’: Cyber Security Minister Clare O’Neil slaps down Optus’s claim that it suffered ‘sophisticated’ attack

Speaking on television on Monday night, Cyber Security Minister Clare O’Neil brushed off one of Optus’s claims in the wake of its security breach.

Cyber Security Minister Clare O’Neil has made it clear she does not believe Optus’s claim that the company experienced a “sophisticated hack”.

In an interview with the ABC’s 7:30 program on Monday night, Ms O’Neil spoke out about the telco’s cyber security breach.

“What is of concern for us is how what is quite a basic hack was undertaken on Optus,” the Minister said.

“We should not have a telecommunications provider in this country which has effectively left the window open for data of this nature to be stolen.

“And the thing that’s very exercising for me as Cyber Security Minister is why did this happen and how can we make sure it never happens again?”

“You certainly don’t seem to be buying the line from Optus that this was a sophisticated attack,” noted host Laura Tingle.

“Well, it wasn’t. So no,” was Ms O’Neil’s blunt response.

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Cybersecurity Minister Clare O’Neil. Picture: ABC

Optus has offered free credit monitoring. Picture: David Mariuz/NCA NewsWire

Ms O’Neil went on to reiterate her call for Optus to provide credit monitoring for its affected customers. Credit monitoring is the tracking of an individual’s credit history for any changes or suspicious activities.

On Monday, Optus announced it would indeed offer some customers a 12-month subscription to the monitoring service Equifax Protect.

“The most affected customers will be receiving direct communications from Optus over the coming days on how to start their subscription at no cost,” the company said in a statement.

“Please note that no communications from Optus relating to this incident will include any links as we recognise there are criminals who will be using this incident to conduct phishing scams.”

While she thanked the company for agreeing to provide the support, Ms O’Neil said “this is not the end of the story”.

“We are still going to be talking about the Optus hack in the weeks to come,” she said.

“Optus needs to communicate clearly to their customers about exactly what information’s been taken from specific individuals, and then needs to assist and support customers to manage the impacts of what is an unprecedented theft of consumer information in Australian history.”

Nearly 10 million Australians have potentially been impacted. Picture: iStock

Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin has apologised. Picture: John Feder/The Australian

On Thursday, Optus revealed that about 9.8 million Australians had potentially been impacted by the security breach, which resulted in past and present customers having their names, emails, phone numbers, date of births, addresses and in some cases even drivers’ licence and passport numbers stolen.

Optus has received major backlash in the wake of the cyber attack, with customers blasting the telco for its response to the situation.

On Friday, it was revealed that Optus knew about the breach on Wednesday, though it didn’t release an official statement until Thursday afternoon, after The Australian had already published an article about attack.

Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin said reports of 9.8 million people’s records being compromised were the “absolute worst case scenario”.

She described the situation as a “sophisticated attack”, saying she found out about the breach less than a day before the situation was made public.

“I found out about it less than 24 hours before we went live to the press,” Ms Bayer Rosmarin said.

“It was only late that night that we were able to determine that it was of a significant scope. I think that was sort of a late night call. And by 2pm the next day we had notified everybody and tried to get all our ducks in a row.”

Meanwhile, law firm Slater and Gordon has revealed it is considering a class action against Optus over what was “potentially the most serious privacy breach in Australian history”.

Slater and Gordon senior associate Ben Zocco said all legal options were being considered.

“This is potentially the most serious privacy breach in Australian history, both in terms of the number of affected people and the nature of the information disclosed,” Mr Zocco said.

“We consider that the consequences could be particularly serious for vulnerable members of society, such as domestic violence survivors, victims of stalking and other threatening behaviour, and people who are seeking or have previously sought asylum in Australia.”

“Given the type of information that has been reportedly disclosed, these people can’t simply heed Optus’ advice to be on the lookout for scam emails and text messages.”

Originally published as ‘It wasn’t’: Cyber Security Minister Clare O’Neil slaps down Optus’s claim that it suffered ‘sophisticated’ attack