Australian Federal Police (AFP) has called its investigation of the Optus data breach ‘Operation Hurricane’ aimed at finding the culprit behind the series of events followed by the massive cyber-attack. To have a complete resolution of the attack, the authorities have put forth hundreds of public servants from several agencies to work on the case.
After receiving this support, the Minister of Home Affairs, Clare O’Neil posted about it in a tweet saying, “I want to re-assure Australians that the full weight of cyber security capabilities across government, including the @ASDGovAu, the @CyberGovAU and the @AusFedPolice are working round the clock to respond to this breach.” She also lauded the government for offering support by saying, “Very substantial support has been provided by the Australian government and I want to credit the work of the Australian Signals Directorate, the Australian Cyber Security Centre and the Australian Federal Police in that support,” as reported in the news website, iTnews.
Government offers support
The assistant commissioner for the cyber command, Justine Gough assured that they will make a complex and lengthy investigation. As for the customers, O’Neil said that they will have better resolutions and services offered to them with regards to their queries raised to Optus. To do the same, they have initiated work with financial regulators and banks. The customers can also look for additional help on the government site like myGov, she added.
O’Neil also raised several updates related to data security measures to the authorities. The same will be disclosed in the coming days as it progresses. Raising concern over the amount of fine that could be imposed on Optus, O’Neil expressed that the fine comes to a little over $2 million dollars and that it was ‘totally inappropriate’ keeping the gravity of the breach in mind, as reported on ABC’s 7:30 program.
There has been news about allowing Australians to have their driver’s license number changed in the wake of the data breach as it may prevent misuse of the information to some extent.
The minister for customer service and digital government Victor Dominello announced on LinkedIn that those customers whose data has been breached, are offered by the NSW government or the Australian state democratic administrative authority of New South Wales to seek help using the helpline. The post further urged Optus data breach victims whose driver’s license number and driver’s license card number have been stolen to apply for a replacement license. They can find further assistance by calling Optus at 133 937 or using the My Optus App.
With the high number of customers whose data has been compromised, the company needs to have a massive infrastructure in place to handle all of their concerns. Optus is offering 12 months of free credit monitoring through Equifax due to the impact of the breach.
Many hands are working in carrying forward the concern of the customers. With each passing day, news of the reformed policies is likely to unfold. Users are urged to not click on any links they receive on their phone or computer to prevent further damage.
The hacker changes their stance
The purported hacker who goes by the name, ‘Optus Hacker’ released 10,000 customers’ data on a hacking forum on Monday night which they later took down. Despite threatening to release more user data if the ransom of $1.5 million was not paid, the hacker apologized for the release of the data on Tuesday. They also mentioned that they won’t sell the data to anyone else. “Too many eyes. We will not sale (sic) data to anyone. We cant if we even want to: personally deleted data from drive (Only copy),” their post read as published on the Guardian.
The hacker confirmed with a researcher who reached out to them that no authentication was needed and it was a case of bad access control that helped them carry forward the massive data breach allegedly of over 11 million users.
