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In September 2022 private data for around 9 million Optus users was stolen.
In response, the CEO of Optus Australia has offered an emotional apology after customers raged about the hack online. A statement from Optus said that Information which may have been exposed includes customers' names, dates of birth, phone numbers, email addresses, and, for a subset of customers, addresses, ID document numbers such as driver's licence or passport numbers.
It is thought that 2.8 million people had all of their details taken, while information for around 7 million people which included DOB, email address, and phone numbers was stolen. Optus is "very sorry" and knows that "customers will be concerned". Optus has said its services were not affected in the breach and remain safe to use, with messages and voice calls not compromised.
Customers have taken to social media to say that the telco had not yet contacted them to make them aware of the breach.
Nothing to worry about. Just another online day in Australia.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by deimtee on Wednesday September 28 2022, @03:25PM (1 child)
They think mobile phones sort of carried on from landline phones. Landlines in AU were pretty secure. One network and each phone physically tied to a single address. When mobiles started being introduced they tried to keep that security. To get a mobile you had to show up with proof of ID and the phone was tied to the name and address on that ID.
No problem is insoluble, but at Ksp = 2.943×10−25 Mercury Sulphide comes close.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Wednesday September 28 2022, @04:54PM
Yes, you're on to what I'm seeing- legacy landline concepts being applied to cell phones.
Notice I wrote "legacy"- old copper-based stuff would be almost impossible to hack, and there'd be pretty much no point. Well, I suppose one could voice call and give a password / security code verbally, but even then you can't be sure of who answers the phone. Could be a robber / kidnapper who has the homeowner literally tied up and is trying to clean out their bank accounts.
If hackers (and I hate using that term that way) can get into govt. networks and systems worldwide, there's no way cell networks are somehow magically immune.
I wish I understood the mechanisms (people making very poor decisions) in place that decide to use cell phone numbers as a secure way to identify and communicate sensitive information. Lunacy. Somehow these decisions are being made without consulting actual tech experts. And like too many things in society, everyone else does it because it's the current fad. Lunacy.