Optus Cyberattack: Customers Should Watch These Signs To Prevent Being Hacked!

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As cyber investigators work to identify the hackers responsible for the attack, the Australian Federal Police has initiated an operation to protect the more than 10,000 Optus data breach victims whose personal information was stolen online.

In the largest data breach in Australian history, Optus has apologized to its millions of customers and took out a full-page advertisement.

The multinational telecommunications company apologized to its 9.8 million affected consumers in newspapers and shorter versions in retail settings.

Optus Company Issues Apology to Its Customers

Less NSW users may need to update their license numbers due to stricter document verification procedures, it has been revealed. The number of Optus customers in NSW who will need to have their licenses updated is around 16,000, which is a startlingly smaller number than the 1.2 million in Victoria and Queensland.

NSW has increased the requirements for passing a national Document Verification Service check on September 1 to stricter levels. The modification, which had been planned for the last eight years, was implemented immediately before Optus was breached and customer data was stolen a few weeks later.

If the identity rules hadn't been strengthened, the implications, according to NSW Customer Service and Digital Minister Victor Dominello, would have been far worse. Dominello told the Sydney Morning Herald, "The Optus breach is terrible for all those impacted." The license number and the physical card number must be entered separately for the ID check.

Residents in NSW just need to replace their card number rather than their license number because only a portion of their license data was taken. NSW is the newest state to implement the stricter identification requirements, joining Western Australia, the ACT, South Australia, Tasmania, and the Northern Territory.

With an estimated 700,000 Victorians and 500,000 Queenslanders in need of a new license number, Victoria and Queensland do not have the strict regulations. Residents in NSW may have to wait several weeks for a new card, but they will be able to use an updated version of their digital license much sooner.

Drivers in Victoria and Queensland will have to wait considerably longer to get their new licenses since they do not have access to digital licenses, according to Daily Mail.

How to Detect Optus Hack?

The almost 10 million Optus customers affected by a significant cyberattack are being warned to be on the alert for a number of new scams, and Scamwatch has shared pictures of four prevalent hoaxes in circulation.

As a result of last week's data theft, scammers will continue to contact telecom consumers "anyway they can," according to Scamwatch. One text message from Optus informs its customers that the company is releasing fresh sim cards and encourages them to schedule delivery.

Delete these messages, Optus is not contacting anyone about providing new sim cards, Scamwatch said. Scamwatch further warned that contact pretending to be from the telecom regarding "some problem" with a bill is probably a scam.

The organization claimed to have received reports of scammers posing as the hackers who were in charge of the data breach, which occurred on the National Day of Mourning.

"Delete the message if you get requests for payment accompanied by a threat that your personal information will be made public," it said. Finally, any offers of compensation made in response to the breach are fraudulent. Per 9News, millions of Australians had their personal information compromised, including:

Names
Date of births
Phone numbers
Email addresses,
Residential addresses
Identity document numbers

Mark Dreyfus, the attorney general, has questioned why the telecom retained so much personal data on file. The federal government wants to enact regulations to prevent businesses from hoarding our personal information, and they'll pay heavy fines if they do so. Dreyfus advised all Optus customers to exercise caution in the interim.

Scamwatch advised anyone who were hacked to "immediately alert your bank and superannuation fund." IDCare, a cybersecurity firm, has been hired by Optus to help clients whose data has been exposed.

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