Maurice Blackburn looks into what can be done about Optus.
Optus is going to have to deal with a second lawsuit over the data breach that put the information of millions of customers in the hands of cybercriminals.
After one of the worst data breaches in Australian history, a national law firm called Maurice Blackburn is looking into a new case against Optus.
This comes after Slater & Gordon said on Monday that they would look into a possible class action against the phone company.
Customers of Australia's second-largest telco may have had their names, dates of birth, phone numbers, and email addresses stolen. In some cases, license and passport numbers were also taken. The data breach was announced on September 22.
The first investigation was started by Maurice Blackburn in April 2020, after Optus sent private information like the names and contact information of 50,000 customers to Sensis by accident.
The latest breach is much bigger and is being looked into by an AFP special taskforce.
Vavaa Mawuli, the head lawyer for Maurice Blackburn, said that the company was carefully looking into the latest breach and looking into whether customers are eligible for compensation.
"People would expect a big telecom company like Optus to have good ways to keep their customers' personal information safe. Customers who were affected by the latest breach, especially those whose data was stolen in 2019, will feel let down by Optus and vulnerable because of this latest mistake, she said.
"It's very disappointing that Optus still doesn't seem to be able to protect its customers' information in a good way, so we're looking into a possible claim against them."