Class Action Has Launched Against Optus After Devastating Cyberattack
More than 100,000 have joined
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A class action has been lodged today in the Federal Court on behalf of more than 100,000 registered participants impacted by the Optus data breach.
Law firm Slater and Gordon has lodged a statement of claim in the Federal Court, accusing the telecoms giant of breaching privacy, telecommunication and consumer laws.
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In September last year, nearly 10 million former and current customers’ personal data had been compromised from the cyberattack, including names, addresses, emails, phone numbers, driver’s licences and passport numbers.
Slater and Gordon class actions practice group leader Ben Hardwick described it as “an extremely serious privacy breach both in terms of the number of people affected and the nature of the information that was compromised”.
“Very real risks were created by the disclosure of this private information that Optus customers had every right to believe was securely protected by their telecommunications and internet provider”, Mr Hardwick said in a statement.
“The type of information made accessible put affected customers at a higher risk of being scammed and having their identities stolen,” he said.
An Optus spokesperson responded to the class action and said the company would “vigorously defend any such proceedings”.
Mr Hardwick said Optus should have had “adequate measures in place to prevent that”.
“Concerningly, the data breach has also potentially jeopardised the safety of a large number of particularly vulnerable groups of Optus customers, such as victims of domestic violence, stalking and other crimes, as well as those working in frontline occupations including the defence force and policing,” he added.
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