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With over 10,000 Optus customers impacted by the massive data breach, the hacker has dropped the ransom demand of $1.5 million payment and has apologised for the attack claiming that the stolen database of customer records has been deleted.
Known only as "Optusdata" on the site Breached Forum, the alleged hacker rescinded their demand for AU$1.5 million in Monero cryptocurrency after claiming they would release 10,000 records daily, writing that they are "very sorry" in a post in the forum.
"Sorry to 10,200 Australians whos (sic) data was leaked.
"Australia will see no gain in fraud, this can be monitored.
"Maybe for 10,200 Australians but rest of population no," the Optusdata hacker wrote.
The account released data belonging to 10,000 Optus customers, posting on the same forum, stating that a "warning that personal information would continue to be released each day" if the ransom was not paid.
"Ransom not payed (sic) but we don't care anymore.
"Was mistake to scrape publish data in first place," Optusdata hacker added.
Speaking with Sky News Australia, shadow cyber security minister James Paterson has noted that the latest data leak by the Optus hacker will be "very distressing news" for users.
"The hacker released the private information of 10,000 Optus customers on Tuesday morning.
"In an online post, the hacker threatened to release the information of 10,000 more customers every day for the next four days if Optus doesn't agree to meet the US$1 million ransom in cryptocurrency.
"Optus bears the overwhelming responsibility for this," Minister Paterson added.
"But that doesn't exempt the government from its responsibility and the public response at least from the government has been slow."
The information accessed included dates of birth, addresses, passport, Medicare and driver licence numbers.
The details of 10,000 Optus customers have been released following a massive data breach which affected millions of Australians last week. Last Thursday, over 10 million current and former customers’ data of the telco had been accessed in a cyber attack.
[Related: Slater and Gordon examines class action against Optus]
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