Ankura CTIX FLASH Update - October 7, 2022

Ransomware/Malware Activity

Optus Confirms Data Breach Impacting 9.8 Million Individuals

On October 3, 2022, Optus, a major telecommunications company headquartered in Australia, confirmed that 2.1 million customers had valid or expired government identification numbers compromised and 9.8 million customers total had personal data exposed due to a cyberattack that occurred in September. Of the 2.1 million individuals with government IDs compromised, 1.2 million had their current form of ID exposed and 900,000 had expired forms of ID exposed. All 9.8 million individuals had their names, email address, date of birth, and phone number exposed. The threat actor behind the cyberattack initially attempted to extort Optus with a $1 million ransom demand in order to not publish the exfiltrated data but ended up leaking the data of 10,000 individuals on a hacking forum after not receiving the payment. The leaked data included names, addresses, date of birth, email