The announcement of the operation came as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese revealed Optus had agreed to cover the cost of replacement passports for customers who had their passport numbers stolen.
“I think that’s entirely appropriate,” Albanese said following a national cabinet meeting in Canberra.
He said it would have been unfair for taxpayers to foot the bill when Optus’s poor cybersecurity practices were to blame for the breach.
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Optus has admitted that almost 37,000 Medicare numbers were exposed as part of the hack revealed last week that has affected about 10 million people. Names,dates of birth,phone numbers,email addresses,physical addresses and driver’s licence numbers were also accessed inone of the largest cyberattacks in Australian history.
Gough said police across all state and territory jurisdictions were working together to identify the 10,000 individuals at high risk of identity fraud so they could receive extra protections.
She said police were scouring online forums and the dark web for other criminals trying to exploit the personal information released online.