The largest telecom company in Australia, Telstra Corp. Ltd., disclosed on Tuesday that it had had a “minor data compromise,” two weeks after Optus, its primary rival, was the target of a devastating cyberattack.
Three-quarters of Australia’s population, or 18.8 million customer accounts, belong to Telstra, which claimed that a third-party organization’s hack resulted in the exposure of some staff data going back to 2017.
According to local media, 30,000 current and past employees were reportedly affected, according to a Telstra internal staff email.
According to a corporate spokeswoman, the information that was obtained was “extremely basic in nature” and was just comprised of names and email addresses.
The official added, without going into further detail, “We suspect it has been made available now in an attempt to profit from the Optus breach.”
Telstra stated the hack only affected current and past personnel and declined to elaborate on the number of people impacted or when it happened.
Since Optus revealed on September 22 that a breach of its systems may have exposed the accounts of up to 10 million individuals, the country’s financial, government, and telecommunications sectors have been on high alert. Home addresses, license numbers, and passport numbers were among the information made public.
Singapore Telecommunications Ltd., which owns Optus, has stated that it is evaluating the possible cost of the attack while law firms consider class action lawsuits.
The Australian government has continued to criticize Optus for labeling the attack as sophisticated and for delaying notifying impacted customers, even though it believes the breach was caused by a simple security flaw.
According to Government Services Minister Bill Shorten, “Optus senior management are kidding themselves if they expect a medal for the way that they’ve been communicating.”
Not even a crocodile would be able to consume that.
A spokesman for Optus declined to comment on Shorten’s statements but stated that the firm was working rapidly to give affected customers accurate updates.
