Leak reveals massive issue plaguing license renewals for victims of Optus hack

Despite flagging their compromised licences, Victorian victims of the Optus hack could still have their stolen information used for fraudulent purposes.

Victorian victims of the Optus hack scandal seeking a new licence are being turned away from VicRoads and told they could face weeks of ­uncertainty.

Leaked talking points, prepared to respond to the crisis, reveal the current licensing system is outdated and unable to deal with the issue, with warnings it could take weeks before being resolved.

While affected licences are being “flagged”, the process is not immediate and requires manual intervention.

Sources have compared it to Victorian contact-tracers being forced to use pen and paper and fax machines at the beginning of the pandemic.

The leaked talking points also reveal that flagging licences will do nothing to stop stolen information being used for fraudulent purposes.

It only makes it harder for unauthorised changes or access to individual information through the Victorian licence database.

Victims of the Optus hack scandal seeking a new licence are being turned away from VicRoads. Picture: Kiel Egging.

However, if a flagged ­licence number was used for a loan application, a bank would not be notified.

A government spokesman blamed Optus for the delay in issuing new licence numbers. He said the telco had still not provided authorities with the full data about all customers who may have been affected.

“Optus has been full of apologies, but we must now see action in order to protect the Victorians impacted,” he said. “Since we learnt of this Optus breach, we have attempted to retrieve the full data of all customers who may have been affected – it is disappointing that this is still yet to occur.

“Our hardworking team at VicRoads is moving as quickly as possible to replace licences for free – we have requested this cost be covered by Optus.”

The spokesman refused to say how long it would take to rectify the issue.

But he said only when Optus provided information on affected customers would it be possible to replace licences.

Optus has not provided authorities with the full data about all customers who may have been affected. Picture David Clark

The government has asked Optus to pay for the cost of replacing the licences of all Victorians caught up in the data breach.

More than 145,000 Victorians have registered to request a new licence.

It is understood part of the issue relates to a unique feature of the Victorian licensing scheme that includes a matching licence and card number.

The leaked talking points admit the state’s licensing ­system “needs modernising”.

In NSW, residents with a digital driver's licence were able to be issued with an interim new card number immediately.

Meanwhile Optus chief executive Kelly Bayer Rosmarin said the telco would not make public the findings of an independent review it has commissioned into the incident.

The probe, to be conducted by Deloitte, will examine the telco’s security systems, controls and processes in a bid to prevent another breach on the scale of that suffered by Optus.