[Janelle Ward]

(Posted on behalf of regular writer Dianne Motton)
So, as if remembering passwords and juggling the damnable demands of upper case, lower case, add a numerical value and create a work of art in a password was not enough, now I have to worry that I have been hacked and potentially scammed, forever! I am one of the many poor sods who signed up to Optus years ago. I bought my daughter a phone and because she was underage, the contract was in my name.
According to the media, my driver’s licence and passport details have been hacked. Optus has been unusually quiet with hard core details about what bit of my life DNA has flown the coop and finds itself sitting on a criminal’s data base, ready to be exploited. I can just see the criminal hunched over the keyboard, can of coke next to him, ashtray full of empty butts, dingy and dark room, my data flashing over the screen in a series of green numbers. Yes, terrible stereotype from watching too many bad Hollywood movies.
It was so long ago that I signed up, that I have no idea what personal details I had to provide to prove who I am. What else will be in the wings? I feel a bit like the character in the fairy story Rumpelstiltskin, who has to hand over her first-born child unless she can determine her blackmailer’s name. Will there be ransom demands in my email inbox in a week or two? Will someone else, stealing my identity, take out a loan, run off with the goods and I’ll be thrown in the clink? I can see the headlines – retired teacher found guilty of fraud. There goes my lovely eulogy from devoted students and family.
I know that some of my personal data is a free-for-all. Supermarkets via their loyalty cards know that I like to buy chocolate-covered liquorice bullets and salted cashews. Who cares. Some things are not worth worrying about, but this breach has taken my panic and desire for privacy to a new level.
Why was Optus allowed to keep my data from over 10 years ago? Surely a few months would suffice in case I, too, developed criminal tendencies and robbed them blind of a few dollars here and there. There is a social contract that we assume happens when we take out contracts, sales and generally enjoy the benefits of technological advancement. We expect that our data is safe.
I am angry that now the onus is on me to go to VicRoads to change my licence, to wait for hours, to do the same for my passport. A new photo, a new form to fill in yet again, more money to find because of some organisation’s incompetence and flagrant disregard for my privacy. My time lost is, of course, of no consequence. It seems to me that all the onus on all organisations falls at the feet of the customer– give us this, give us that, but where is the responsibility to protect us?
I am thoroughly p…ed off.
Are you or were you an Optus customer? What precautions are you taking?

[gamma58]

No point to drown in your self pity, Janelle, after all you are part of media who (most often without proper research) instigate panic among readers.
“According to the media, my driver’s licence and passport details have been hacked” – you are not wrong by saying “according to media” as it is usually either one or the other. Companies selling services are obliged to collect 100 points of ID, and as a passport and driving licence both represent 70 points, you would have been required only to provide one of them, and add usually the Medicare card (which represents 40 points) to achieve 100 points.
“It was so long ago that I signed up, that I have no idea what personal details I had to provide to prove who I am” – documents have expiry dates and if it really was such a long time ago it is rather likely that the provided information is no longer valid, therefore you would not need to replace those documents. I suggest you save yourself some nerves and double check with the actual company (in this case Optus) what documents are stored on your account and is that information still valid.
Companies are legally obliged to keep certain information about their customers , they do not do if for fun.
I understand that you are thoroughly p…ed off, but perhaps you should be mainly at yourself, as you wrote this without checking the facts first.

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