Data scanned for Optus issues
Print
Services Australia is using data matching to scan Medicare details for Optus hack victims.
Services Australia is moving to protect customers whose Medicare credentials were stolen in the recent Optus data breach incident.
The formal notification of the data-matching sweep says Services Australia “will compare the data provided by Optus to Medicare and Centrelink customer records held by the Agency”.
“This will assist the agency to identify affected customers and apply proactive security measures to affected customer records.”
The notice marks “the commencement of a data-matching program by Services Australia (the Agency) using information provided by SingTel Optus Pty Limited (Optus) about customers affected by the September 2022 data breach (Optus Data Breach)”.
It says that “where an Agency customer’s Medicare number or Centrelink Reference Number (CRN) was disclosed as part of the Optus Data Breach” that data “to the extent available to Optus, has been provided by Optus” to Services Australia.
Optus has admitted that around 50,000 Medicare numbers were exposed as part of the breach, amid a trove of 2.1 million identity documents that also included driver’s licence and passport details.