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Category — Optus
Sydney Man Sentenced for Blackmailing Optus Customers After Data Breach

Sydney Man Sentenced for Blackmailing Optus Customers After Data Breach

Feb 08, 2023 Cyber Crime / SMS Fraud
A Sydney man has been  sentenced  to an 18-month Community Correction Order ( CCO ) and 100 hours of community service for attempting to take advantage of the Optus data breach last year to blackmail its customers. The unnamed individual, 19 when  arrested in October 2022  and now 20, used the leaked records stolen from the security lapse to orchestrate an SMS-based extortion scheme. The suspect contacted dozens of victims to threaten that their personal information would be sold to other hackers and "used for fraudulent activity" unless an AU$ 2,000 payment is made to a bank account under their control. The scammer is said to have sent the SMS messages to 92 individuals whose information was part of a  larger cache of 10,200 records  that was briefly published in a criminal forum in September 2022, The Australian Federal Police (AFP), which launched Operation Guardian following the breach, said there is no evidence that any of the affected customers ...
19-Year-Old Teen Arrested for Using Leaked Optus Breach Data in SMS Scam

19-Year-Old Teen Arrested for Using Leaked Optus Breach Data in SMS Scam

Oct 06, 2022
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has arrested a 19-year-old teen from Sydney for allegedly attempting to leverage the data leaked following the Optus data breach late last month to extort victims. The suspect is said to have carried out a text message blackmail scam, demanding that the recipients transfer $2,000 to a bank account or risk getting their personal information misused for fraudulent activities. The source of the data, the agency said, was a sample database of 10,200 records that was posted briefly on a cybercrime forum accessible on the clearnet by an actor named "optusdata," before taking it down. Details of the scam were  previously shared  by 9News Australia reporter Chris O'Keefe on September 27, 2022. The AFP further said it executed a search warrant at the home of the offender, leading to the seizure of a mobile phone used to send the text messages to about 93 Optus customers. "At this stage it appears none of the individuals who received t...
Want to Grow Vulnerability Management into Exposure Management? Start Here!

Want to Grow Vulnerability Management into Exposure Management? Start Here!

Dec 05, 2024Attack Surface / Exposure Management
Vulnerability Management (VM) has long been a cornerstone of organizational cybersecurity. Nearly as old as the discipline of cybersecurity itself, it aims to help organizations identify and address potential security issues before they become serious problems. Yet, in recent years, the limitations of this approach have become increasingly evident.  At its core, Vulnerability Management processes remain essential for identifying and addressing weaknesses. But as time marches on and attack avenues evolve, this approach is beginning to show its age. In a recent report, How to Grow Vulnerability Management into Exposure Management (Gartner, How to Grow Vulnerability Management Into Exposure Management, 8 November 2024, Mitchell Schneider Et Al.), we believe Gartner® addresses this point precisely and demonstrates how organizations can – and must – shift from a vulnerability-centric strategy to a broader Exposure Management (EM) framework. We feel it's more than a worthwhile read an...
Telstra Telecom Suffers Data Breach Potentially Exposing Employee Information

Telstra Telecom Suffers Data Breach Potentially Exposing Employee Information

Oct 05, 2022
Australia's largest telecommunications company Telstra disclosed that it was the victim of a data breach through a third-party, nearly two weeks after Optus reported a breach of its own. "There has been no breach of Telstra's systems," Narelle Devine, the company's chief information security officer for the Asia Pacific region,  said . "And no customer account data was involved." It said the breach targeted a third-party platform called  Work Life NAB  that's no longer actively used by the company, and that the leaked data posted on the internet concerned a "now-obsolete Telstra employee rewards program." Telstra also noted it became aware of the breach last week, adding the information included first and last names and the email addresses used to sign up for the program. It further clarified that the data posted was from 2017. The data was "basic in nature," Devine said.  The company did not reveal how many employees wer...
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Optus Hack Exposes Data of Nearly 2.1 Million Australian Telecom Customers

Optus Hack Exposes Data of Nearly 2.1 Million Australian Telecom Customers

Oct 04, 2022
Australian telecom giant Optus on Monday confirmed that nearly 2.1 million of its current and former customers suffered a leak of their personal information and at least one form of identification number as a result of a  data breach  late last month. The company also  said  it has engaged the services of Deloitte to conduct an external forensic assessment of the attack to "understand how it occurred and how we can prevent it from occurring again." Optus is fully owned by Singaporean telecommunications conglomerate Singtel, which also has a significant stake in Bharti Airtel, the second largest carrier in India. "Approximately 1.2 million customers have had at least one number from a current and valid form of identification, and personal information, compromised," Singtel  said  in an announcement made on its website. It also said the breach affected expired IDs and personal information of about 900,000 additional customers. It further emphasized that...
Hacker Behind Optus Breach Releases 10,200 Customer Records in Extortion Scheme

Hacker Behind Optus Breach Releases 10,200 Customer Records in Extortion Scheme

Sep 27, 2022
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) on Monday disclosed it's working to gather "crucial evidence" and that it's collaborating with overseas law enforcement authorities following the hack of telecom provider Optus. "Operation Hurricane has been launched to identify the criminals behind the alleged breach and to help shield Australians from identity fraud," the AFP  said  in a statement. The development comes after Optus, Australia's second-largest wireless carrier,  disclosed  on September 22, 2022, that it was a victim of a cyberattack. It claimed it "immediately shut down the attack" as soon as it came to light. The threat actor behind the breach also briefly released a sample of 10,200 records from the breach – putting those users at heightened risk of fraud – in addition to asking for $1 million as part of an extortion demand. The dataset has since been taken down, with the attacker also claiming to have deleted the only copy of the sto...
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