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Data hack in Australia could cost Singapore Telecommunications more than US$400 million in profits

  • An unprecedented hack last week on Optus, a subsidiary of SingTel, led to the theft of personal data of 9.8 million customers in Australia
  • One estimate believes that compensation for Optus customers could equate to between US$420 million and US$560 million

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The cost for Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. to make good customers exposed to one of Australia’s worst data breaches risks wiping out more than one-quarter of its annual profit. Photo: AFP/File
Bloomberg
The cost for Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. to make good customers exposed to one of Australia’s worst data breaches risks wiping out more than one-quarter of its annual profit.
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Optus, SingTel’s Australian mobile-phone business, last week revealed hackers accessed the personal information of as many as 9.8 million customers – over one-third of the population. Some 2.8 million of them lost details of passports, drivers licenses or government-issued medical identity cards, triggering concerns about large-scale identity fraud, according to the government.

One week after the hack was disclosed, the scale and the fallout – as well as the potential costs for Optus – are growing.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the company should pay for replacement passports, while Australia’s biggest states said Optus would pick up the tab for new driving permits. The government also plans to tighten cybersecurity legislation because of the breach.

Cyberattacks have become more common worldwide, exposing at least 11.43 billion customer records at several hundred entities in the space of more than a decade. Australian police are working with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation on the Optus hack. Home Affairs and Cyber Security Minister Clare O’Neil on Wednesday described the attack as “a big wake-up call” for corporate Australia.

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