Qantas lawsuit over cyber attack: Maurice Blackburn move opportunism or justice?

Maurice Blackburn is suing Qantas over a cyber attack, but the law firm’s silence on similar breaches at industry super funds raises questions of opportunism and political alignment.

The personal details of about 5.7 million Qantas customers were compromised during a cyber attack on one of its call centres in Manila.

Maurice Blackburn, the red law firm, is now after the red kangaroo, seeking compensation on behalf of 5.7 million Qantas customers whose data was pillaged during a cyber attack on the airline.

It’s a noble pursuit. After all, the data accessed – including birthdates, names and addresses – can be used to stage identity theft, while cyber security experts have warned of follow-on “social engineering” attacks.

Affected customers have every right to be anxious and seek some recompense for data that they thought was safe and secure.

But Maurice Blackburn putting its hand up as a law firm for the people also smacks of opportunism or at best a glaring double standard.

Maybe that’s a bit harsh. But where was Maurice B when cyber criminals siphoned hundreds of thousands of dollars from the accounts of industry super fund members?

I called them the Sunday following the attack on AustralianSuper, Australian Retirement Trust, Hostplus and Rest, asking if they were looking at it.

They said they weren’t but would let me know if that changed. Did I hear back? No.

There was nothing to see here. Even when Cbus – chaired by ALP national president and former treasurer Wayne Swan – revealed it had also been hit with an “unusually high spike in log-in attempts”, my phone remained silent.

You see, Maurice Blackburn has a long history of being aligned with the ALP.

Maurice Blackburn – a socialist lawyer who established the firm in 1919 – was also a Labor politician involved in both Victorian and federal politics.

Former Victorian premier Steve Bracks sits on Maurice Blackburn’s board.

Fast forward a century and former Victorian premier Steve Bracks – who was Swan’s predecessor at Cbus – is on Maurice B’s board, serving as a non-executive director.

It’s a firm proud of its heritage, which includes helping “influence some of Australia’s most important legal decisions, including the 40-hour work week, equal pay for women and indigenous workers”.

It says it ‘fights for fair’. Although, since this article was published we were told that branding was retired about five years ago.

Yet, Maurice B did not pursue the industry super funds, despite repeated warnings from financial and corporate regulators that their cybersecurity was not up to scratch, leaving members’ savings exposed to scams and data breaches.

Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia chief executive Mary Delahunty dismissed these warnings – warnings that could have made members accounts more secure – accusing the financial watchdog of raising unnecessary alarm.

Maurice Blackburn was founded by a socialist lawyer and ALP politician 106 years ago.

But cyber criminals siphoned about $500,000 from AustralianSuper members accounts. A 74-year-old Queensland woman lost $406,000 from her retirement savings.

Here’s another history lesson, unions set up industry super funds in 1992 to look after the retirement savings of their members after superannuation became a right for all Australian workers.

But wait, the industry super funds say their hack paled in comparison to the strikes on Optus, Medibank, and I’d bet they say the same thing about Qantas.

AustralianSuper told me the money taken from members accounts had been remediated and that Optus lost the data of 9.5 million Australians, while of the 600 accounts it examined, the “vast majority has been ruled as non-suspicious”.

Meanwhile, Anthony Albanese dismissed the heist on super funds, saying hacks happen “all the time”.

In other words, when cyber criminals target union-aligned industry super funds, there is nothing to see here.

If they target one of Australia’s biggest companies – particularly one with a prickly IR record – then it’s fair game.

But here’s a tip, cyber criminals don’t care about politics. And that’s a chilling reminder for everyone.

Originally published as Qantas lawsuit over cyber attack: Maurice Blackburn move opportunism or justice?