Cyber-attack on wireless firm exposes data belonging to 40% of this country's population

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A data breach has revealed personal information including names, phone numbers, email addresses, and more belonging to current, former, and prospective Optus subscribers.

, the second largest wireless provider in Australia, Optus, has been contacting customers about a data breach that revealed personal information belonging to as many as 10 million customers. The size of the compromised database makes this one of the largest cybersecurity breakdowns in the country's history. At 10 million subscribers, the sheer number of Australians impacted equals about 40% of the country's population of 25.9 million people.

The CEO noted that many Optus customers are now concerned about the safety of their personal information, and are frustrated by the incident.published a story yesterday stating that Optus received a blackmail threat demanding that it pay $1 million in cryptocurrency or else the hackers would sell the personal information belonging to millions of customers.

Optus noted that since the matter is under investigation by law enforcement, the amount of information it can release pertaining to this data breach is limited. The carrier did point out that the IP address belonging to the hackers moved between different countries in Europe. The wireless provider, in a tweet, suggested that customers keep an eye out for any unusual and suspicious activity in their accounts.

population. Telstra is the largest wireless provider in the country with close to 20 million subscribers.that"It's good to see that Optus has said that it will contact those it believes are affected and that they will not be sending messages in emails or via SMS [text] messages - this makes it clear to customers that any such messages they receive will be fake. It's also reassuring that no passwords or payment information has been stolen.

Emm added,"Nevertheless, customers should be on the alert for any fraudulent activity they see and should protect their online accounts with unique, complex passwords and using two-factor authentication."

 

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