A
Sydney
man
has
been
sentenced
to
an
18-month
Community
Correction
Order
(CCO)
and
100
hours
of
community
service
for
attempting
to
take
advantage
of
the
Optus
data
breach
last
year
to
blackmail
its
customers.
The
unnamed
individual,
19
when
arrested
in
October
2022
and
now
20,
used
the
leaked
records
stolen
from
the
security
lapse
to
orchestrate
an
SMS-based
extortion
scheme.
The
suspect
contacted
dozens
of
victims
to
threaten
that
their
personal
information
would
be
sold
to
other
hackers
and
“used
for
fraudulent
activity”
unless
an
AU$
2,000
payment
is
made
to
a
bank
account
under
their
control.
The
scammer
is
said
to
have
sent
the
SMS
messages
to
92
individuals
whose
information
was
part
of
a
larger
cache
of
10,200
records
that
was
briefly
published
in
a
criminal
forum
in
September
2022,
The
Australian
Federal
Police
(AFP),
which
launched
Operation
Guardian
following
the
breach,
said
there
is
no
evidence
that
any
of
the
affected
customers
transferred
the
demanded
amount.
Following
his
arrest,
the
offender
pleaded
guilty
in
November
2022
to
two
counts
of
using
a
telecommunications
network
with
intent
to
commit
a
serious
offense.
“The
criminal
use
of
stolen
data
is
a
serious
offense
and
has
the
potential
to
cause
significant
harm
to
the
community,”
AFP
Commander
Chris
Goldsmid
said.
The
Australian
telecom
service
provider
suffered
a
massive
hack
last
year,
with
passport
information
and
Medicare
numbers
pertaining
to
nearly
2.1
million
of
its
current
and
former
customers
exposed.
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