The boss of one of Australia’s biggest telecommunications companies has fronted up to customers today, after the organisation was the victim of a significant cyber attack.
Optus became aware of the attack on Wednesday, and made the issue public last night.
Chief executive Kelly Bayer told media today that the company still doesn’t know how many customers are affected, but said 9.8 million people is the "worst case scenario".
“Obviously I am angry but there are people out there that want to do this to our customers,” she said.
“I am disappointed that we could not have prevented it.”
Bayer admitted it’s hard to track down where the attack came from.
“The IP address kept moving, it is a sophisticated attack. It is safe to say that it comes out of various countries in Europe. In terms of the customer data, it dates back to 2017.”
Names, contact details, the drivers licence and passport numbers of nine million current and former customers have potentially been compromised.
Customers have been warned they could face a higher risk of online scams and identity theft.
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