The Australian telecoms company Optus announced on Monday that one of the nation’s largest and most damaging data breaches occurred, which resulted in the theft of personal information and at least one valid form of identity for around 1.2 million of its customers.
The breach that occurred a month ago by an anonymous internet account and affected 10 million consumers, which is roughly comparable to 40% of Australia’s population, drew strong criticism from the government.
Optus announced the breach late on Monday night and said that it affected the personal information and expired IDs of approximately 900,000 consumers. However, the company stressed that “the exposed material did not contain valid or current document ID numbers for some 7.7 million clients.”
Singapore Telecommunications Ltd, the parent firm of the corporation, stated that it was evaluating the financial impact of the huge breach that occurred at Australia’s second-largest telco.
Optus stated that it has informed the affected customers about the data breach after being urged by the Australian government to expedite its notification to 10,200 customers whose personal information was made public. The customers whose information was compromised include those whose names, addresses, and phone numbers were made public.