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Optus is set to face a second legal claim over their customer data breach, which left potentially millions of customers’ information in the hands of cyber criminals.
Editor’s note: This story originally appeared on Cyber Security Connect’s sister brand, Lawyers Weekly.
National plaintiff firm Maurice Blackburn is investigating a new legal claim against Optus after one of the most serious data breaches in Australian history.
This comes after Slater & Gordon announced they would be investigating a possible class action on Monday against the telco.
Customers of Australia’s second-largest telco may have had their names, dates of birth, phone numbers and email addresses stolen in the data breach — which was announced on 22 September — as well as licence and passport numbers in some cases.
The new investigation follows an earlier one launched by Maurice Blackburn in April 2020, after Optus mistakenly provided private data including names and contact details of 50,000 customers to Sensis.
The latest breach is far larger — and is now the subject of an AFP special taskforce investigation.
Maurice Blackburn principal lawyer Vavaa Mawuli said the firm was carefully reviewing the latest breach and investigating whether customers are entitled to compensation.
“People would expect a large telecommunications service provider like Optus to have solid systems for protecting their customers’ personal information. The customers impacted by the latest breach will understandably be feeling let down by Optus and vulnerable as a result of this latest blunder, especially those whose data was compromised back in 2019,” she said.
“It is very disappointing that Optus still seems unable to put in place effective safeguards to protect its customers’ information, so we are investigating a potential claim against them.
[Related: Medicare numbers leaked following major Optus data breach]
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