It’s been over six months since Optus reported a huuuuuge hack and data breach, and on Friday, a class action has officially been lodged on behalf of all the customers whose data has been compromised. Hot diggity damn.
Australian law firm Slater and Gordon will be taking on the big dogs, Optus, with the class action being lodged on behalf of more than 100,000 people.
Lawyers argue that Optus failed in its duty of care to protect customers, with accusations that the company breached “privacy, telecommunicaton and consumer laws.”
“We have people who work in frontline occupations — police officers — very, very concerned that criminals will find out where they live,” Slater and Gordon’s Ben Hardwick told the ABC.
“So the release of this information causes people great anxiety. It causes them great concern.
“And, so, this class action is about seeking redress for the potentially millions of Australians who have been affected by this data breach.”
The class action will seek compensation for losses the data breach called, including time and money spent replacing identity documents, as well as other measures participants needed to undertake to protect their privacy and prevent identity theft. Damn.
“They are also seeking damages for non-economic losses such as distress, frustration and disappointment,” Slater and Gordon added.
Hardwick described the event as “an extremely serious privacy breach both in terms of the number of people affected and the nature of the information that was compromised.”
“Very real risks were created by the disclosure of this private information that Optus customers had every right to believe was securely protected by their telecommunications and internet provider,” he said.
While Slater and Gordon haven’t announced how much moolah they’ll be seeking from Optus, Hardwick has said that the lawsuit will be seeking “substantial” compensation on behalf of affected current and former customers.
After the data breach, Optus got absolutely sledged by the federal government when Home Affairs Minister claimed it was a “” effort from criminals to hack the system.
While Optus denied human error had anything to do with what went down, they’re still being investigated by the Australian Federal Police and ACMA, the communications watchdog.
Optus set aside $140 million to help customers replace and renew their ID documents. They’ve since apologised for the attack and have promised to invest more in protecting its systems.
It’s not the first whopper of a class action lawsuit we’ve seen recently, with three law firms going after Medibank after yet another data breach earlier this year that affected almost 10 million customers.
For more information and to register as part of Slater and Gordon’s class action against Optus, .
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