A cyber-attack on Australian telecommunications provider, Optus, may have affected 10 million people, the equivalent of 40% of the country’s population! Customer data reported as stolen in the attack includes names, dates of birth, home addresses, phone, and email contacts, and even the passport and driving licence numbers of around 2.8 million people!

Following the attack, a ransom request of $1m (A$1.5m / £938,000) in cryptocurrency was made to Optus. The advice to those Australian customers affected has been to look out for signs of identity theft and for any opportunistic scammers looking to exploit the confusion in the aftermath. It is thought that the hack could lead to lead to European-style privacy laws being introduced in Australia.