Optus $99/Mth Sim Only Plan - 60,000 Qf Pts

[SYD]

Off to Germany this weekend will try it out there but an absolute flop so far.

Germany was one place my included roaming was all over the shop. Back in April I’d connect to one network and txt/calls fine but only 3G/Edge. Force it over to another network to get 4G but no calls/txt… Don‘t know if that was Optus or iPhone.

Other than that, generally I’ve found it works well but I’ve never used the daily roaming option.

Something to note (at least for iPhone), I found that if I left the phone on manual network selection, it could take ages to then reconnect when moving country to country. Once I got it back to auto network selection, generally worked fine.

 

[exceladdict]

Just in regards to the roaming my experience this week is that it’s garbage.
I’m currently in Malta and got a message on arrival from T to say that Malta wasn’t an eligible Day Pass. Got onto Wi-Fi and activated a $35/ 7 day Optus package. Malta is included as an eligible country.
Text to say it’s active shortly afterwards. It hasn’t worked at all for 4 days. Not in any location I have been.
Off to Germany this weekend will try it out there but an absolute flop so far.

Optus' roaming was inferior to Telstra in our experience in more regional areas of the Philippines, but good (great?) in Singapore and Japan.

 

[serfty]

I found earlier this month I often had to manually select a carrier as quite few would connect for Phone/SMS but not for data.

This was Thailand and Malaysia and mainly around airports.

 

[Mattg]

Isn't there an actual thread on this news item where this could be discussed, instead of cluttering a thread about a promotion from the same company?

I haven't seen one.

Still haven't heard anything whatsoever from Optus. Shouldn't they be contacting their customers about this?

 

[kpc]

I received an email yesterday saying all my personal data had been breached To say I'm pi$$ed off is an understatement! What compensation is Optus offering us now that I'm at risk of identity theft? I assume a class action against Optus might be on the cards? ...I would join...

 

[Daver6]

I received an email yesterday saying all my personal data had been breached To say I'm pi$$ed off is an understatement! What compensation is Optus offering us now that I'm at risk of identity theft? I assume a class action against Optus might be on the cards? ...I would join...

You PII has probably already been compromised in other breaches.

As for compensation, you'll get a big fat nothing. Unfortunately legislation is so weak. Legislation only requires that you're notified. End of story. Until there are financial penalties for companies in Australia, there is little to motivate them to protect your data.

 

[oz_mark]

I received an email yesterday saying all my personal data had been breached To say I'm pi$$ed off is an understatement! What compensation is Optus offering us now that I'm at risk of identity theft? I assume a class action against Optus might be on the cards? ...I would join...

There is much to play out yet. Optus became aware of the breach on Wednesday and announced it Thursday. I'd be sure there is much going on in various corridors.

 

[Rembrandt]

You PII has probably already been compromised in other breaches.

Many people's ID documents are probably already up for sale on the dark web and were not stolen due to the recent Optus data breach. We provide our ID documents too easily over to company's. Heck, some people just send their ID documents via email, fax or have someone photocopy them.

 

[Rembrandt]

I haven't seen one.

Still haven't heard anything whatsoever from Optus. Shouldn't they be contacting their customers about this?

Some people have already been contacted. It's a huge effort now for Optus to contact customers and previous customers that have had their ID documents stolen. We're talking about millions of customers and not all will be affected.

What I'd like to know is how long does Optus hold ID documents for? I can recall companies priding themselves erasing ID documents after a few months from their systems (can't recall the company names).

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Some people have already been contacted. It's a huge effort now for Optus to contact customers and previous customers that have had their ID documents stolen. We're talking about millions of customers and not all will be affected.

What I'd like to know is how long does Optus hold ID documents for? I can recall companies priding themselves erasing ID documents after a few months from their systems (can't recall the company names).

I don’t think it’s a huge effort. Airlines send out millions of emails in a bulk mail for FF status each month. Banks do it, etc.

You send an email to everyone outlining what the next steps are, and the timelines.

You then have a day or two to contact those subject to the most serious breach.

According to news.com(.au) this morning there has been a demand of $1.5 million for the hacker to sell the info back to optus. If true I reckon they should just pay it and sort out the criminal investigation later.

 

[drron]

I would guess the information has already been sold to various nefarious hackers. There are various sites where you can check whether your emails are compromised. I use one through malwarebytes and I already know one of my emails has been compromised. Fortunately one that google wouldn't let me use anymore and one that nothing important went on.
I was also caught in the IHG case. That was more serious as not long after my Mastercard was hacked -might not be related but I suspect it is.

 

[Rembrandt]

I don’t think it’s a huge effort. Airlines send out millions of emails in a bulk mail for FF status each month. Banks do it, etc.

You send an email to everyone outlining what the next steps are, and the timelines.

You then have a day or two to contact those subject to the most serious breach.

According to news.com(.au) this morning there has been a demand of $1.5 million for the hacker to sell the info back to optus. If true I reckon they should just pay it and sort out the criminal investigation later.

From my understanding Optus believes 1/3 of their customers and previous customers are affected. So one would think they would contact the persons they know are affected instead of alarming the other majority that don't appear to be affected.

$1.5 I'm sure Optus would prefer to pay $1.5 million (I guess USD) than potentially paying far more in compensation to customers affected. However, law enforcement would strongly advise against this.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

From my understanding Optus believes 1/3 of their customers and previous customers are affected. So one would think they would contact the persons they know are affected instead of alarming the other majority that don't appear to be affected.

$1.5 I'm sure Optus would prefer to pay $1.5 million (I guess USD) than potentially paying far more in compensation to customers affected. However, law enforcement would strongly advise against this.

I wasn’t aware only a third of customers were affected… i thought it was the whole data base, 11+ million, with a subset of those affected by the most serious ‘next level’ breach of passport or driver licence numbers.

Either way, an email should have gone out to everyone advising of the next steps. Everyone will have read about this by now and even those not affected will want to know the forward timetable for information.

It’s a simple enough step, and a major fail.

$1.5 million should be put down to a learning experience, and a chance to improve their security. This is not a hostage situation, it is something which could be avoided. I don’t see the payment of a ransom to be setting any sort of dangerous precedent… it might spur other companies to be more vigilant.

 

[oz_mark]

From my understanding Optus believes 1/3 of their customers and previous customers are affected. So one would think they would contact the persons they know are affected instead of alarming the other majority that don't appear to be affected.

The difficulty is in timing. The breach was discovered Wednesday so unlikely they will have had full information on Thursday when the announced it.

The alternative is to wait until you've worked it all out. Which seems how some of the US hospitality chains worked given they sometimes refer to breaches that had happened months before.

 

[SYD]

I wasn’t aware only a third of customers were affected… i thought it was the whole data base, 11+ million, with a subset of those affected by the most serious ‘next level’ breach of passport or driver licence numbers.

Either way, an email should have gone out to everyone advising of the next steps. Everyone will have read about this by now and even those not affected will want to know the forward timetable for information.

Yes, reported in the SMH / The Age yesterday that about 1/3 rd of the records were accessed before they managed to shut it down. Apparently, even that data was encrypted.

Although the fairly generic email I received from Optus last night states the disclosure of ”your personal information” and list the items reported in the media.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Yes, reported in the SMH / The Age yesterday that about 1/3 rd of the records were accessed before they managed to shut it down. Apparently, even that data was encrypted.

Although the fairly generic email I received from Optus last night states the disclosure of ”your personal information” and list the items reported in the media.

I guess the breach covers past users as well… it’s a bit confusing as the reported number of optus users seems to be anywhere between 5.8 and 10.2 million. Either way, 9.8 million affected customers is still a fair chunk.

 

[Daver6]

From my understanding Optus believes 1/3 of their customers and previous customers are affected. So one would think they would contact the persons they know are affected instead of alarming the other majority that don't appear to be affected.

$1.5 I'm sure Optus would prefer to pay $1.5 million (I guess USD) than potentially paying far more in compensation to customers affected. However, law enforcement would strongly advise against this.

It's believe Garmin paid their hackers last year (or was it the year before) when they were compromised.

Optus isn't going to be paying compensation to customers. Why would they? There is no legal requirement to.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

It's believe Garmin paid their hackers last year (or was it the year before) when they were compromised.

Optus isn't going to be paying compensation to customers. Why would they? There is no legal requirement to.

negligence? breach of contract?

I dunno if maybe any consumer laws might kick in? as in not providing a product or service that was fit for purpose?

I’m sure there will be some law firms looking closely at this.

Certainly any affected customer shouldn’t be left out of pocket if they have to spend money to fix this.

 

[kangarooflyer88]

One question about the Optus plan (and apologies if this is off topic): does the $99/month plan work for prepaid? If not, what are the requirements for a post-paid plan with Optus? Can one be an overseas student here or do you need to have Permanent Residence (as is the case to set up a card here)? I am somewhat tempted to sign up just to churn those points.

Now getting back to the central issue of this thread: the Optus data breach. I haven't received an email from them yet (I have them for my iPad prepaid data). IIRC they did have to scan my passport so who knows if that data was leaked. The only silver lining is my passport data on its own is useless since it's hooked into DHS systems in the US that require additional biometric markers, and I'll leave it at that. As for the severity of the hack and who is impacted, I think it's fair to say they can't recall given Gladys now works for them. Then again perhaps the Optus CEO shouldn't be sorry and simply declare it! Then again, who am I kidding. These fat cats don't care so long as the moolah keeps rolling in, which it will. After all, where else are you gonna go for wireless? Telstra!

-RooFlyer88

 

[drron]

Earlier today i got the optus email which as stated above by @SYD does say- your personal information. As I said before I was a user of Optus in the past and i already knew the old email address I used had been hacked.