1News can reveal that New Zealanders have likely been caught up in a massive Australian cyber-attack.
The telecommunications company Optus has suffered a significant breach of its systems and warned customers earlier this week that it didn’t know how many customers are affected but said 9.8 million people was the "worst case scenario".
Information such as names, contact details, driver's licence and passport numbers have been exposed as part of the breach.
1News has repeatedly asked Optus how many New Zealanders, who’d purchased SIM cards while in Australia, have had their data put at risk.
A spokesperson for the organisation said they were unable to provide specific details due to an ongoing investigation by the Australian Federal Police.
“We can confirm some current and former customers have been impacted and that we have contacted those customers who are most at risk via SMS and email.”
However, in a dump of at least 10,000 customer records this morning, the word “ZEALAND” is mentioned 10 times, relating to New Zealand passports likely used to create Optus accounts.
The information was shared widely online by the alleged hacker, as part of a ransom for AUD$1.5 million in Monero cryptocurrency.
The user said another 10,000 records would be shared every day for the next four days unless the ransom was paid.
However, in another twist just hours later, the user has since apologised for the breach, and said they will not sell the data.
The alleged hacker claimed they’ve deleted the only copy of the full dataset and apologised to Optus and its customers.
What should you do?
It’s hard to tell how many users from New Zealand have been affected, but Optus has told 1News that it’s contacting affected customers.
A spokesperson said the organisation has “now sent email or SMS messages to all customers whose id document numbers, such as licence or passport number, were compromised because of the cyberattack.”
“We continue to reach out to customers who have had other details, such as their email address, illegally accessed."
The latest updates on the hack from Optus can be found here.
The Office of Australia’s Information Commissioner has also said it has a list of measures those at risk can take, which also applies to people in NZ.
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