Optus reveals freebie for hacked Aussies after major cyberattack

Optus has announced a huge freebie for some of the millions of Australians who were hacked in last week’s massive cyberattack.

Optus will offer the people who were “most affected” by last week’s cyberattack a free subscription to an identity protection service.

The Singaporean-owned telco giant said on Monday no passwords or financial details had been compromised in the hack that stole other personal information of up to 9.8 million of its users dating back to 2017.

Optus says it will offer some customers a 12-month subscription to the credit 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.”

Home Affairs and Cybersecurity Minister Clare O’Neil is working on security reforms after the Optus hack. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The Optus update comes after Home Affairs and Cybersecurity Minister Clare O’Neil said the company must take responsibility for its data breach and called on the telco to do more to protect customers.

Optus disclosed on Thursday it had been subjected to a massive cyberattack that compromised the personal information of up to 9.8 million of its users.

Hackers stole information including names, dates of birth, addresses, phone numbers and in some cases passport or driver’s licence numbers.

Ms O’Neil, who is leading the government’s response to the attack, said Optus should provide free credit monitoring to affected customers.

“This will help protect those customers from identity theft and I call on Optus to make that commitment today – put yourself into the shoes of an Optus customer,” Ms O’Neil told parliament during question time on Monday.

“Responsibility for the security breach rests with Optus and I want to note that the breach is of a nature that we should not expect to see in a large telecommunications provider in this country.”

Ms O’Neil said the data breach had resulted in a “very substantial reform task”.

She is expected to this week reveal security reforms, including a new rule that would force companies such as Optus to inform banks quickly about security breaches.

Ms O’Neil said she had raised these issues with the telco’s chief executive officer, including the request to provide customers with credit monitoring.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the corporate sector needs to protect people’s data. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gaye Gerard

Anthony Albanese said earlier on Monday the cyberattack was a “huge wake-up call” for the corporate sector regarding the need to protect people’s data.

“This is a massive breach that has occurred,” the Prime Minister told 4BC radio.

“We know that in today’s world, there are actors, some state actors, but also some criminal organisations who want to get access to people’s data.”

Jim Chalmers said the federal government was “responding adequately” to the hack but wouldn’t confirm how quickly new security reforms would be enacted.

Asked on Monday if Labor would race through reforms to protect Australians’ financial security from similar data breaches, the Treasurer said that was a matter for Home Affairs and Cybersecurity Minister Clare O’Neil.

“If there are changes to the arrangements that need to be made in the future, the minister will make that clear,” Mr Chalmers told reporters.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the government is ‘responding adequately’ to the cyberattack. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Australia’s privacy laws are also expected to be amended after the Albanese government is presented with the final report from the Attorney-General’s Department on its review of the legislation.

The Morrison government launched the review of the Privacy Act in 2020, proposing multiple reforms, including increasing users’ rights to take legal action against companies over data breaches.

Optus argued against changing privacy laws to give Australians more rights over their data two years before it lost the personal information of customers from as far back as 2017 in last week’s hack.

The telco giant more than once opposed proposed changes to the Privacy Act that would have given customers the right to request their data be destroyed.

Optus chief executive officer Kelly Bayer Rosmarin said as soon as the company learned of the hack it took action to stop it and launched an investigation.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Ms Rosmarin said she was “devastated” by the attack.