The Australian Federal Police will launch a special operation to protect the worst affected customers whose personal information was stolen in the massive Optus data breach.
Operation Guardian has been set up on behalf of the many Optus customers whose leaked details included drivers licence numbers, passport numbers and Medicare card numbers and put them at the greatest risk for identity theft.
Assistant Commissioner Justine Gough says the operation will begin with rallying around the 10,000 customers whose data was released online by hackers earlier this week.
Primarily, the operation will be monitoring the dark web to see if this leaked information is being shopped around as well as working with banks to spot any activity related to the affected customers.
Gough could offer little additional details about the Optus hack including the actual number of Optus customers whose identifying information was compromised.
The complexity of the attack continues to be shrouded in mystery with Assistant Commissioner Gough only say the hacker had used techniques to hide their identity.
Meanwhile, Optus has agreed to foot the bill to replace passports of customers whose personal details were lost in one of Australian’s largest data breaches.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the telco would pay the bill after Senator Penny Wong wrote a letter to Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin suggesting the company cover the cost instead of taxpayers.
