Hack News: Considered The Largest Trading Hack In History

Up to ten million Optus users' personal information was taken.

Surprisingly, the hacker pledged to delete the stolen material.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) issued a warning to Australian financial market intermediaries, including brokers, about the dangers of “identity theft and fraud” in the aftermath of the Optus data breach.

A of WikiFX obtained a copy of the email, which requested market intermediaries to be “particularly attentive in checking and maintaining consumers' personal information.”

It has also contacted many brokers to inquire about their readiness for the ASIC warning; however, at least one verified that it did not get the ASIC's email.

Optus is Australia's second biggest telecom service provider. The corporation caused a sensation in the nation earlier this week when it revealed that the personal data of up to 10 million consumers, including home addresses, driver's license numbers, and passport numbers, had been hacked.

The hacker first demanded a ransom of $1 million from the corporation, threatening to disclose the identities of 10,000 Optus customers every day until the money was paid. However, an anonymous internet persona claiming to be the hacker suddenly withdrew the ransom demand and pledged to delete the hacked material.

“At this time, it seems that the data breach is restricted to retail consumers (and maybe small companies), whereas corporate accounts do not appear to be compromised,” according to ASIC's email.

“Given the scope of the Optus data breach, the email from ASIC is quite sensible,” Sophie Gerber, founder and Co-CEO of Traction. “Although it was delivered to a subset of AFSL holders, it truly applies to all enterprises that interact with Australians, whether or not they are in financial services.”

“Although it has been stated that the compromised material has now been erased, considering the character of the party involved, there is no doubt a degree of suspicion.”

Optus agreed to pay the multimillion-dollar cost of updating the driver's license numbers of Australians impacted by the data incident.

ASIC has said that all regulated market participants must “handle cyber risk as part of their AFS licensing duties.” However, as part of the Australian Financial Services licensing criteria, the authority does not prescribe any technical standards or expert advice.

“ASIC has released a series of media announcements about cybersecurity, which, when paired with the RI Advice, demonstrate the amount of scrutiny being taken to these matters.” “AFSL holders should actively manage their cybersecurity and identity verification procedures, keeping on top of any advancements and adjusting appropriately,” Gerber said.

About WikiFX

WikiFX is a platform for searching worldwide corporate financial information. Its primary duty is to provide the included foreign exchange trading organizations with basic information searching, regulatory license seeking, the credit assessment, platform identification, and other services.

Over 39,000 brokers, both licensed and unregistered, are listed on the network. WikiFX's staff has been hard at work with 30 financial authorities from across the world to verify that the information supplied is factual and correct.

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