Anna Caldwell: Why Optus hack is a big wake-up call

The Optus hack has exposed an uncomfortable truth for all of us. Technology and the modern interconnectedness that we thrive on has evolved faster and bigger than we are currently equipped to manage, writes Anna Caldwell.

The Optus hack has exposed an uncomfortable truth for all of us. Technology and the modern interconnectedness that we thrive on has evolved faster and bigger than we are currently equipped to manage.

Indeed, the technological revolution of recent decades has made our lives better, more connected, more seamless — but has also exposed us to new risks that we have so far failed to properly deal with.

We might be laser focused this week on Optus’s careless data leak but there is actually a common thread through our lives where the quickly developing tech and digital world has left Australians exposed.

Just a month ago, Sydney was grappling with the Knox scandal of shocking racist, sexist chatter among teenage boys in an online digital chat room.

Parents are challenged everyday how to manage the impact on their children’s psychology from streams of unfiltered, uncensored digital content — often violent or sex-crazed — available at their fingertips.

If a new standard of risk awareness and new tech-literacy is an upshot of the Optus bungle, we’ll be moving in the right direction. Picture: NCA NewsWire

This has gone hand-in-hand more broadly with the evolution of online bullying which has seen kids who have no respite from their harassers take their own lives.

Other bullies can hide behind anonymous handles or stalk their victims online.

Sexual grooming and assault has also moved into the tech realm where predators can hide in their living rooms.

Dating has evolved so love-hopefuls can be swindled for millions by fakes cat-fishing them with glossy pictures and tales of grandeur.

This list could go on.

We live in a world where tech behemoths who thrive on an attention economy have built up business while outsourcing or de-prioritising welfare.

Problem is – the rest of us now need to pick up the tab on the welfare end of the equation. Because it’s our welfare at stake.

Every facet of our lives is exposed to a new suite of constantly evolving digital risks. We live in an age where the internet and tech giants wield more power than governments – and now we need to reclaim it.

The Optus data breach has grabbed all of the attention because of its scale and reach.

Millions of Aussies, and counting, have spent the week being fearful and looking for answers and support from a desperately flat-footed Optus who has shown itself to be well out of its depth. But the truth is the Optus case provides a looking glass into the evolution of modern risks.

This is not to say we should all be luddites and shun the digital world. Absolutely not.

Instead, we are faced with an opportunity to craft and control the way we live in this new world. And this is an opportunity we must grab with both hands and master so that the tech world does not master us.

Digital literacy and safety must be at the heart of dinner table conversations, child-raising education and school curriculums.

We must be able to trust big companies to keep our data. Optus must be held to account. Picture: NCA Newswire

Some would say it already is but we have a long way to go.

Fundamentally, we need to inject digital safety as a priority into every aspect of life from cradle to grave.

This must be no different from how we approach other types of personal safety like health or on the roads — because we’ve learned we have to.

Critically, everyday people are not to blame for the Optus data breach. We must be able to trust big companies to keep our data. 
Optus must be held to account. Big companies need to learn to manage risks just like the rest of us.

If the company gets off lightly by claiming a victim position and letting the Federal Government pick up the tab, there will be no learning for big companies all over the country.

It’s also worth noting that experts are questioning just how high-end the hack even was.

This is firmly at odds with the Optus PR message that the company was a victim of a sophisticated attack.

Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil described the attack as “basic”, despite Optus’s attempts to portray it as much more than that. 


She said it was a “big wake-up call for corporate Australia, for everyone that holds data of Australians”.

The very fact Australia has turned to the FBI for support in the investigation shows how ill-equipped we are to tackle the challenges we face. Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones said the attack had the “ring of a kid in a garage” rather than a sophisticated state actor.

“On the face of it, that appears to be the case,” he told Sky News.

“ I don’t know that as a matter of fact,” he added.

The technological revolution has changed our lives for the better.

We have information and entertainment at our fingertips and remain connected in ways our ancestors never dreamt possible. 


But with that comes risk and with that comes an opportunity to evolve ourselves.

If a new standard of risk awareness and new tech-literacy is an upshot of the Optus bungle, we’ll be moving in the right direction.