Trial

Weekly Reading

• Optus - a subsidiary of Singapore Telecommunications Ltd - went public with the breach about 24 hours after it noticed suspicious activity on its network.
• Australia's second biggest telecoms provider said current and former customers' data was stolen - including names, birthdates, phone numbers, email addresses, passport numbers and driving licence numbers. It stressed that payment details and account passwords were not compromised.
• Those whose passport or licence numbers were taken - roughly 2.8 million people - are at a "quite significant" risk of identity theft and fraud, the government has since said.
• Optus said it was investigating the breach and had notified police, financial institutions, and government regulators. The breach appears to have originated overseas, local media reported.
• In an emotional apology, Optus chief executive Kelly Bayer Rosmarin called it a "sophisticated attack", saying the company has very strong cybersecurity.
• Early on Saturday, an internet user published data samples on an online forum and demanded a ransom of $1m (A$1.5m; £938,000) in cryptocurrency from Optus.
• The company had a week to pay or the other stolen data would be sold off in batches, the person said.
• Investigators are yet to verify the user's claims, but some experts quickly said the sample data - which contained about 100 records - appeared legitimate.
• Sydney-based tech reporter Jeremy Kirk contacted the purported hacker and said the person gave him a detailed explanation of how they stole the data.
• The user contradicted Optus's claims the breach was "sophisticated", saying they puled the data from a freely accessible software interface.
• "No authenticate needed… All open to internet for any one to use," they said in a message, according to Kirk.

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