The risk to identity theft impacts on all Optus customers. In SA the government has waived the cost of replacing your drivers licence. There are also costs associated with protecting your identity. At least three things need to happen. Firstly governments need to facilitate ways in which Optus customers can protect their identity. Secondly given the costs should not be borne by taxpayers therefore the Federal Government needs to recover the costs of repairing this from Optus. Thirdly we need to acknowledge that a great deal of data that is routinely collected is used for market research. (Does Optus need to know my date of birth?) As a JP I quite often need to confirm people's identity. We can use this as a model to put a firewall between the business and customer. One way to address this could be to upgrade the Post Offices to assist with this. Again the cost should be borne by the business.

Perhaps it is not smart to have a smart 'phone, especially for those people who are constantly fiddling with the things.

It is utterly ridiculous that a company should demand all this information before giving you a phone number.

It is equally ridiculous that they should keep this information after using it for the purpose they claimed they needed it. It is totally Optus fault that this information is now public, as they did not have adequate security protecting it, & did not hold it isolated from the net.

All costs involved in this mess must be covered by Optus, or their licence to operate in Oz must be canceled.

Hassie, well said.

I totally agree!

The main fault lies with the 'victims' who can't live without the technology, and are so unsuspecting when they hand out private information, not knowing that it can all be scooped up by a crook walking past with a scanner.

Scary stuff all right.

We've had emails from supposedly reputable organisations
sent to us telling us to click on to an invoice for some
package that we had ordered. I simply deleted the emails.
They must think people are stupid - especially if they haven't
ordered anything. They also give no details up front.
Bloody scammers!