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Australian energy and internet provider Origin Energy has confirmed a data breach that compromised the details of 700 staff members.
Speaking with Cyber Daily, Origin said the data was allegedly collected and stolen by a former employee, who then attempted to send the data to themselves on 30 July 2025 when their position was terminated.
“We have discovered that a former employee acted in serious breach of our policies, procedures, and the standards we require from our employees when handling customer data,” Origin said.
According to Origin, the employee collected the information during their time at the company between 12 October 2023 and 30 July 2025. The encrypted file the individual attempted to send to themselves contained the alleged data of 732 customers and included credit and debit card details.
“While there is no evidence at this stage that the file was successfully accessed or shared outside of Origin, we take all of our stakeholders’ privacy extremely seriously and are contacting potentially impacted individuals to apologise and provide support, including credit monitoring where applicable, and advice on preventative measures they can take,” Origin said.
Origin added in a letter to those impacted that the encryption on the file made it unreadable, and that there was no evidence that the data was ever read.
“We can’t definitely rule out the possibility of the file being accessible outside of Origin,” the company said.
Additionally, the former employee signed a statutory declaration confirming that the file was deleted.
“We have reported this matter to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) and to relevant law enforcement,” Origin added in its statement sent to Cyber Daily.
“We are conducting our own investigation into the matter to see if there are any changes we can implement to ensure this isolated incident does not happen again.”
Origin has said the former employee was not charged with any crime, nor has it received any ransom demands for the data.
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