Optus said it has now contacted all users that have been affected by the cyber attack that happened last Thursday.

The cyber attack leaked the information of nearly 10 million users in one of the biggest data breaches in Australia’s history.

The data breach is believed to have leaked customers’ vital information such as name, date of birth, phone number and email addresses. While for some users their addresses, driving licence details and passport numbers may have also been leaked.

“We continue to reach out to customers who have had other details, such as their email address, illegally accessed. We understand and apologise for the concern that this has caused for our customers. Payment detail and account passwords have not been compromised as a result of this attack,” Optus said in a statement.

Australian Federal Police are investigating the legitimacy of a $1.5 million ransom set out by the alleged hackers on a data market.

The hackers gave Optus one week to pay the $1.5 million in cryptocurrency, or they would sell the data on the dark web.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that the government needs to rethink the current data security laws to help protect Australians from cyber attacks such as the one on Thursday.

“This is a huge wake-up call for the corporate sector in terms of protecting the data,” the PM told Brisbane-based radio station 4BC,” Albanese said.

“We know that in today’s world there are actors – some state actors, but also some criminal organisations – who want to get access to people’s data.”

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