Australian police were investigating a report that a purported hacker had already released the stolen personal data of 10,000 Optus customers and was...
CANBERRA, Australia — Australian police were investigating a report that a purported hacker had already released the stolen personal data of 10,000 Optus customers and was demanding a $1 million ransom in cryptocurrency, the telecommunications company’s chief executive said on Tuesday.
The Australian government has blamed lax cybersecurity at the nation’s second-largest wireless carrier for the unprecedented breach last week of the personal data of 9.8 million current and former Optus customers. Australian Federal Police said Monday their investigators were working with overseas agencies to determine who was behind the attack and to help shield the public from identity fraud. Police declined further comment Tuesday as the investigations were ongoing, an AFP statement said.
Cybersecurity Minister Clare O’Neil on Tuesday urged Optus to give priority to informing customers of what information had been taken. Consumers have a right to know exactly what individual personal information has been compromised in Optus’ communications to them, she said.O’Neil on Monday described the hack as an “unprecedented theft of consumer information in Australian history.”
Optus appeared to have left an application programming interface, a piece of software known as an API that allows other systems to communicate and exchange data, open to the public, Kirk said.