The federal government is examining whether it could give new Medicare numbers to people affected by the Optus data breach as it comes under pressure to cover the costs of replacement passports.
Health Minister Mark Butler said the government was concerned the company had not immediately notified it of the loss of Medicare details and was looking at how best to protect the identity of people whose Medicare numbers had been compromised.
“It’s deeply unfortunate that we were only notified that Medicare details were included in that data breach in the last 24 hours or so,” Butler told ABC Radio National Breakfast on Wednesday morning.
“Right now, all the resources of government are going to protecting consumers in the face of this extraordinary breach of their personal data.”
The Albanese government escalated its attacks on Optus over the company’s massive data breach on Tuesday, demanding to know why customers were not informed their Medicare numbers may have been accessed as part of the cyberattack that hit almost 10 million accounts.
The confrontation between the government and the telco followed an incident in which someone claiming to be the hacker released unverified details of 10,000 customers online, but then withdrew demands that Optus pay $1.55 million to prevent the release of more customer data.
While Optus did not explicitly say Medicare details were taken when it first announced the data breach, it has consistently said that customer ID numbers have been compromised.
Butler said the government was looking “very closely” at whether new Medicare numbers could be issued.
Medicare numbers typically remain the same for people throughout their lives.
The Coalition is calling on the government to waive passport fees for affected customers.
“Australians whose passport numbers have been compromised are currently being told by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on their website that ‘if you choose to replace your passport, you’ll have to pay’ and that ‘we weren’t responsible for the data breach’,” foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham and cybersecurity spokesman James Patterson said in a statement.
“Victims of the Optus cyber hack should not have to wait or pay significant amounts of fees to secure their personal information, and obtain a new passport.
“While Optus must take responsibility for what may be the largest data breach in Australian history, the Albanese government has a responsibility to help Australians take steps to protect their personal information and security.”
The former head of the Australian Cyber Security Centre, Alastair MacGibbon, said Optus had not handled the situation well.
“I don’t think it’s helpful that the Optus CEO is necessarily hitting back on this. The [Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil] yesterday came out and said she was surprised that Medicare numbers were exposed as well because Optus didn’t tell us about Medicare numbers for the first four or five days of this matter.
“That’s not great to not be completely transparent about that. That’s important stuff.”
More to come
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