19-Year-Old Hacker Arrested for Using Leaked Optus Breach Data in SMS Scam

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has arrested a 19-year-aged teenager from Sydney for allegedly trying to leverage the info leaked adhering to the Optus knowledge breach late last thirty day period to extort victims.

The suspect is said to have carried out a text information blackmail rip-off, demanding that the recipients transfer $2,000 to a financial institution account or risk having their private info misused for fraudulent things to do.

The resource of the info, the agency mentioned, was a sample database of 10,200 data that was posted briefly on a cybercrime forum available on the clearnet by an actor named “optusdata,” just before using it down.

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Aspects of the fraud ended up earlier shared by 9Information Australia reporter Chris O’Keefe on September 27, 2022.

The AFP additional explained it executed a look for warrant at the house of the offender, major to the seizure of a cellular phone used to mail the textual content messages to about 93 Optus customers. “At this stage it appears none of the men and women who gained the text information transferred dollars to the account,” it noted.

The unnamed personal has been billed with working with a telecommunication network with the intent to commit a critical offense and working with identification details. Both the expenses are punishable by a highest penalty of imprisonment for 10 and 7 years, respectively.

The arrest arrives as Optus, previously this week, verified that the breach impacted just about 2.1 million of its recent and former customers, exposing their license figures and Medicare ID figures.

The progress also follows the launch of Operation Guardian by the legislation enforcement company to determine the influenced 10,200 folks and watch internet boards for danger actors making an attempt to exploit the produced information and facts for financial profit.

Also set up in the aftermath of the breach is Procedure Hurricane, which aims to unmask the danger actor liable for the breach.

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