The details of thousands of Telstra workers have been leaked to the same forum where Optus customer data was exposed last week.
Up to 30,000 full names and email addresses from past and present Telstra employees, collected by a third party in 2017, were uploaded to the forum.
A Telstra spokesman told The New Daily its own systems were not breached, and the data released had been used by employees to sign up to the third-party platform.
They said the leak may have been timed to capitalise on the Optus breach, which left millions of customers vulnerable to identity theft and fraud.
TND understands Telstra learned of the data leak only after the data was posted online.
“No customer account information was included. We believe it’s been made available now in an attempt to profit from the Optus breach,” the Telstra spokesman said.
“The relevant authorities have been notified, we’ve let current employees know, and while the data is of minimal risk to former employees, we will attempt to notify them too.”
It is alleged the leak came from a third party that provided staff members with Telstra’s Worklife NAB rewards program. Telstra customers have not been affected.
|
Optus reveals 2.1m customers' details exposed
10 News First – Disclaimer |
|
Tuesday’s news came as Optus handed over the details of its data breach to Services Australia, after the government agency last week sought full details of customers affected by the massive leak .
Government Services Minister Bill Shorten said the government agency was assessing the Optus data.
“What it’s about is the horse’s bolted. We’re trying to close the gate,” he said.
“All I’m motivated by is … to get the information so I can stop hackers from hacking into government data and further compromising people’s privacy.”
Mr Shorten said Optus estimated 50,000 Medicare record and 150,000 passports had been compromised.
On Monday, the telco announced Deloitte would conduct a ‘forensic review’ into how the personal data of 9.8 million customers was stolen last month, amid accusations Optus “left the window open” for hackers to get in.
Elsewhere, it has been revealed a majority of Australians would back a move to strengthen privacy protections following the Optus leak.
Guardian Essential poll results published on Tuesday found just over half of respondents supported tighter restrictions on the amount of information companies could collect on consumers.
An overwhelming majority of the 1050 respondents also said they were worried about scammers stealing their identity to set up bank accounts, despite only 21 per cent saying they were directly affected by the Optus breach.
The survey comes after Optus’s parent company advised it had engaged lawyers in case it was subject to any class action over the hack, which involved the personal details of more than 10 million customers being compromised.
In a statement to the Singapore stock exchange on Monday, Optus owner Singtel said it had not received any legal notice of a class action but any such move would be “vigorously defended”.
The company also said it wanted to clarify media reports about potential fines or other costs relating to the incident.
“Singtel considers these reports speculative at this juncture and advises that they should not be relied upon,” it said.
-with AAP
