Legal action looming for Optus following data breach

Optus is facing legal action from Australia’s communications watchdog over its 2022 data breach, with allegations that the telecom company failed to protect its customers from cyber attacks.

Proceedings filed in the Federal court by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) allege that Optus failed to look after its customers and their confidentiality from “unauthorised interference or unauthorised access” as required by the Telecommunications Act.

Nearly 10 million current and former Optus customers were affected by the September 2022 breach, with sensitive information including email addresses, phone numbers, names, and dates of birth being exposed over three days.

ACMA confirmed in a statement it had filed proceedings against the telco but advised it could not comment further.

“As this matter is now before the court, the ACMA will not be making any further statements at this time,” they said.

The legal proceedings come as another blow to telecommunications giant after the Optus network experienced a nationwide outage last November that affected more than 10 million mobile and broadband users. Internet, mobiles phones, and landlines were all completely down, which sent businesses and services that heavily rely on the network into chaos.

There were widespread delays and over 500 cancelled services, which caused chaos for commuters trying to get to work. Many had to call rideshare services such as Uber, which caused a dramatic price surge that was eventually capped to prevent further furore.

Many small businesses were unable to accept electronic payments from customers due to the outage. As a result, these businesses incurred major losses due to a lack of income or cancelled deals as a result of the network failure. Affected small businesses, especially local hospitality businesses, had to close their doors for the day. Throughout all the chaos, it appears there has been a small win for physical currency.

The outage underscored the growing dangers of relying heavily on interconnected systems as we embrace a digital-first approach. Businesses, consumers, and government agencies were caught off guard by the abrupt loss of connectivity, shedding light on the extent to which our lives are entwined with technology.

For Cash Welcome campaign coordinator Jason Bryce the outage served as a “big wake-up call” regarding the vulnerability of digital transactions while highlighting the need to preserve access to cash.

“There are often issues with EFTPOS and we’re left dealing with cash,” Bryce recently told Sunrise.

Bryce is intensifying the push on the government to secure access to cash with an online petition that has already garnered an impressive 150,000 signatures and counting.

“Banks are deserting towns and suburbs and leaving Australians without ready access to cash and banking services,” the petition read.

An Optus spokesperson later confirmed that “changes to the routing information from an international peering network following a routine software upgrade” caused the outage.

Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosemarin resigned from the telco in November 2023 after facing considerable backlash in wake of the nationwide outage. Optus has named former NBN chief, Stephen Rue, as their next CEO and will take over the post in November 2024.