Thousands of Medicare numbers have been leaked following the Optus data breach, the telco revealed on Wednesday.
Late on Wednesday, Optus revealed that 14,900 valid Medicare ID numbers had been compromised in the major data breach, with 22,000 numbers believed to have expired.
According to the telco, affected customers with a compromised Medicare card that had not expired would be contacted within 24 hours. The telco plans to contact the remainder within the coming days out of “an abundance of caution”.
“If you are concerned or have been affected, you can replace your Medicare card as advised by Services Australia.
“Please be assured that people cannot access your Medicare details with just your Medicare number.
“Our call centres will not have further information to assist on this matter,” Optus said.
The telco had first announced about 9.8 million Australians’ data was compromised in the large-scale breach last Thursday.
The alleged hacking group announced it would release the information unless paid a US$1 million (AU$1.53 million) ransom on a well-known data breach forum.
