Health Minister Mark Butler says he is concerned Optus did not notify the government that Medicare details had been leaked in last week’s massive data breach.
The telco company revealed on Thursday the cyber attack compromised the personal details of nearly ten million customers, which ranged from phone numbers and email addresses to driver’s licences and passports.
However, Mr Butler said the federal government was only notified Medicare details had been caught up in the data breach on Tuesday, some five days after the attack.
“We were not notified that among passport details, driver’s licence details and others that Medicare details had also been the subject of this breach,” he told the ABC on Wednesday.
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“So we’re very concerned obviously about the loss of this data, and we’re working very hard to deal with the consequences of that.
“But we are particularly concerned that we were not notified earlier and consumers were not notified earlier about the breach of Medicare data as well.”
Mr Butler was unable to confirm how many people had their Medicare details stolen but said the government is working to get new Medicare numbers.
“We’re looking at (getting people new Medicare numbers). We’ll have more to say about that as soon as we can, but we’re looking at that very closely,” he said.
It comes as Optus is set to bear the cost of licence replacement fees, as millions of customers caught up in the hack look to change their driver’s licences.
The New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia governments on Tuesday began clearing red tape to ensure victims were able to prove they were affected by the hack.
In NSW a licence replacement fee of $29 will be charged by Service NSW with Optus to reimburse the cost.
The South Australian government will waive its usual $20 licence replacement fee for affected customers requiring a new licence.
Victorians will also receive ‘free’ licence replacements and a chance to flag their licence record in case of future fraud.
Similar arrangements are in place across other states and territories, with the move set to cost Optus millions.
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