Services Australia is unaware of the extent to which Medicare numbers or other credentials have been exposed in the Optus breach, because the telco hasn’t responded to the agency’s queries.
The government said that Services Australia had written to Optus on September 27 “asking for the full details of all affected customers with Services Australia credentials exposed, such as Medicare cards and/or Centrelink concession cards.”
It wanted the information to “place additional security measures on affected customer records” as an anti-fraud measure.
But minister for government services Bill Shorten said that “to date, there have been no impacted customer details provided by Optus in relation to this request.”
“We need Optus to help us help Australians,” Shorten said in a statement.
“Services Australia stands ready to protect the privacy of customers who have had their private information compromised.”
Medicare numbers are a recent addition to the types of personal information compromised in the Optus data breach.
Optus had claimed in a statement dated September 28 - one day after Services Australia wrote to them - that it was "in contact with Services Australia and we will be letting all affected customers know the guidance on the steps they can take."
However, the government and Optus had different indications of how many Medicare numbers were caught up.
The telco said it had "identified 14,900 valid Medicare ID numbers" that had been exposed, and said it would contact the customers directly over several days.
But Shorten told a press conference on Sunday that the government had been told "about 36,900" ..
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