2022 was a big year for cyber security breaches in Australia. Both telecommunications provider Optus and private health insurer Medibank suffered large-scale data breaches affecting tens of millions of Australians, leading to heightened regulatory and business focus on cyber security in the years since.
The two data breaches also led to legal action, with recent court filings detailing alleged technical contributors to the incidents. For Optus, a coding error in an exposed, dormant API provided access, while compromised credentials on an admin account opened the door to Medibank’s customer data.
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Source: TechRadar News
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