Another day, another data breach and this time, it was Telstra. While there is some good news in that it’s a relatively small number of people compared to the millions affected by the recent Optus breach. That is little consolation for the 130,000 Telstra customers who have had their details mistakenly listed online.
The issue does not pertain to a cyber attack but, as we understand it, a mistake with “database alignment”. In a statement issued to the Sydney Morning Herald, Telstra Chief Financial Officer, Michael Ackland said:
This was a result of a misalignment of databases – no cyber activity was involved.
and stated that
Protecting our customers’ privacy is absolutely paramount and this is an unacceptable breach of their trust.
The error has been corrected, and, as you would expect, Telstra is contacting affected customers as a priority. To assist affected clients, Telstra will be offering to connect them with IDCARE to ensure that potential threats as a result of the error are mitigated.
The big difference with this Telstra incident, and the Optus and Medibank hacks, is this Telstra incident was an internal screwup, that made the data accessible. It wasn’t an attack from outside, breaking into Telstra.
Still got released for scammers to access …
There should be monetary compensation.
Telstra should be forced to give affected customers twelve months free connection and data.
I hope that the relevant authorities do something to Telstra to make them careful not to do this again.