[gonzo41]

In Australia, due to counter terror laws, you can't get a phone sim without providing verifiable government ID. So the consequence of that is that they phone companies have a really large amount of sensitive information. This information loss should be treated like a workplace death. Or a toxic spill. things will only change when a CEO goes to jail for this sort of obvious negligence. It may be harsh, but until there's real consequences, nothing will change.

[haser_au]

Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin did an interview with ABC today, and said "some of the customer information is information you would find on Facebook or LinkedIn such as name, date of birth, phone number and email address".

Umm...no. Most people do NOT publicise that information to the public.

Agreed. Until a CEO goes to jail for something like this, it'll continue to become a "pay the fine and move on" situation.

[SyneRyder]

Worth keeping in mind that Optus recently hired Gladys Berejiklian, which may say something about the character of the company:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/optus-appoints-ex-nsw-premier...

For international readers, Gladys Berejiklian was the Premier of the state of New South Wales, and resigned as Premier once it became public that she and her boyfriend were being investigated by the Independent Commission Against Corruption. Optus is the job she accepted while the corruption investigation continued.

https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/gladys-berejiklian-resigns...

[toomanybeersies]

It's probably not from prepaid SIM ID checks. Telcos are forbidden from retaining your passport/drivers licence details after your identity has been verified [1].

[1] https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2017L00399 (Section 6.4)