SYDNEY Reuters -- Australian telecoms giant Optus must pay the cost of replacing the passports and drivers licenses of millions of customers whose personal information was stolen in one of the country's biggest data breaches, the government said on Thursday.
The theft of data attached to 10 million customer accounts, equivalent to 40% of Australia's population, was caused by an error by Optus, so it was up to the Singapore Telecommunications-owned company to pay for the consequences, Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones said.
Jones told reporters in Sydney that Optus is responsible for the costs and consequences of this, whether it's the replacement of a licence, or the replacement of a passport or other necessary pieces of ID. He didn't give a dollar figure for the costs.
An Optus representative was not immediately available to respond to Jones' comments. Optus said it would pay for the most affected customers to receive credit monitoring for a year and that it would pay for the most affected customers to get credit monitoring.
The comments underscore the growing tension between Australia's government and its second-largest telco as internet companies, banks and government authorities try to minimize the risk of being hacked.
The operator of an anonymous account had demanded $1 million to stop selling Optus customer data, only to withdraw the demand and apologise, citing heightened publicity. Optus and law enforcement authorities haven't verified the demand, but cybersecurity experts say it's most likely authentic.
The stolen data included passport numbers, drivers licence numbers, government health insurance numbers, phone numbers, and home addresses, prompting commentators and lawmakers to demand replacement documents.
Other large internet firms said they were running extra cybersecurity checks to reduce the risk of a similar breach.
A spokesman for No said that we worked closely with our cybersecurity partners and the relevant government agencies to increase our checks in light of the Optus breach. The internet provider TPG Telecom Ltd, which has 6 million customers, has 6 million customers.
A Telstra Corp spokesman said in an email: "We will continue to consider what other steps we may need to put in place as we learn more about the Optus incident."