Telstra data breach: 130,000 customers exposed
130,000 Telstra customers exposed in data breach
Ben Cubby
ByBen Cubby
December 10, 2022 — 8.49pm
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Personal information of more than 130,000 Telstra customers has been exposed in the latest large-scale privacy breach to strike big Australian companies.
Telstra said a “misalignment of databases” rather than hacking was responsible for the breach, which saw customer details wrongly made available on the online White Pages and via directory assistance.
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More than 130,000 Telstra customer details published online
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More than 130,000 Telstra customer details published online
Telstra says the details of 132,000 customers have been published online after a privacy breach.
The company said sorry to its customers on a blog post, and said it was individually contacting those affected. The breach spanned a period of years.
It was removing customer details from public view, said Telstra’s chief financial officer Michael Ackland. The information exposed included people’s names, phone numbers and addresses.
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“This was a result of a misalignment of databases – no cyber activity was involved,” Ackland said in a statement to the Herald.
“Protecting our customers’ privacy is absolutely paramount and this is an unacceptable breach of their trust.”
Ackland said on the Telstra blog post that the breach was discovered during an internal review, and now another investigation was under way within the company.
“Protecting our customers’ privacy is absolutely paramount, and for the customers impacted we understand this is an unacceptable breach of your trust,” he said on the blog. “We’re sorry it occurred, and we know we have let you down.”
The breach follows that of fellow telecommunications company Optus, which was apparently hacked in September, leading to data from millions of customers being exposed online.
Ben Cubby
ByBen Cubby
December 10, 2022 — 8.49pm
Save
Share
Normal text sizeLarger text sizeVery large text size
76
View all comments
Personal information of more than 130,000 Telstra customers has been exposed in the latest large-scale privacy breach to strike big Australian companies.
Telstra said a “misalignment of databases” rather than hacking was responsible for the breach, which saw customer details wrongly made available on the online White Pages and via directory assistance.
Play Video
More than 130,000 Telstra customer details published online
Play video
0:24
More than 130,000 Telstra customer details published online
Telstra says the details of 132,000 customers have been published online after a privacy breach.
The company said sorry to its customers on a blog post, and said it was individually contacting those affected. The breach spanned a period of years.
It was removing customer details from public view, said Telstra’s chief financial officer Michael Ackland. The information exposed included people’s names, phone numbers and addresses.
RELATED ARTICLE
Medibank systems will go offline this weekend for a cybersecurity overhaul after criminals posted all the stolen data on the dark web last month.
Cybersecurity
Medibank to shut down for weekend cybersecurity overhaul
“This was a result of a misalignment of databases – no cyber activity was involved,” Ackland said in a statement to the Herald.
“Protecting our customers’ privacy is absolutely paramount and this is an unacceptable breach of their trust.”
Ackland said on the Telstra blog post that the breach was discovered during an internal review, and now another investigation was under way within the company.
“Protecting our customers’ privacy is absolutely paramount, and for the customers impacted we understand this is an unacceptable breach of your trust,” he said on the blog. “We’re sorry it occurred, and we know we have let you down.”
The breach follows that of fellow telecommunications company Optus, which was apparently hacked in September, leading to data from millions of customers being exposed online.
