Australian businesses and consumers have been victimised by a slew of high-profile data breaches in recent months.

Hackers who stole the personal information of 9.7 million current and former Medibank customers in October have threatened to release the data after the health insurance company refused to pay a ransom demand, ABC reported.

In the same month, Woolworths Group subsidiary MyDeal found that 2.2 million customers data had been exposed when its customer relationship management system was accessed by a compromised user credential.

In September, Optus suffered a massive cyber attack which affected around 9.8 million past and present customers.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that more than five million emails and tens of thousands of documents, including the details of 35 Australian Federal Police (AFP) operations, were hijacked in August.

Australian Clinical Labs (ACL) took months to publicise that the data of 223,000 people had been illicitly accessed and some of it posted to the dark web. ACL said the breach, which occurred in February 2022, affected its subsidiary, Medlab, and included leaks of medical and health records, credit card numbers and Medicare numbers.

Optus offering support for victims

Optus customers affected by the recent data breach have been offered a complimentary annual subscription service to monitor their credit information and protect against identity theft.

In an update pertaining to the cyberattack that occurred last week, Optus revealed that the telco was offering the “most affected current and former customers”, whose information was compromised, a 12-month Equifax Protect package at no cost.

Equifax Protect is a credit monitoring and identity protection service that can help to reduce the risk of identity theft.

Although no passwords or financial details were seized in the attack, information which may have been exposed included customers’ names, dates of birth, phone numbers, email addresses, and, for a subset of customers, addresses and ID document numbers, such as driver's licence and passport numbers.

Affected customers will receive a unique code from Optus which will enable them to activate their subscription via Equifax’s Optus page. Existing Equifax customers affected by the attack must cancel their current subscription and re-register as a new customer, using a different email address, to receive the complimentary review service.

Preventative measures: Check your credit score

The Optus hack is a blunt reminder that your personal information is constantly at risk of exposure in the digital age. Optus’ customer network comprises almost 10 million Australians. That’s around 40 percent of the total population.

Performing regular credit score checks is a sensible, preventative measure to monitor whether someone has illicitly used your personal information to obtain a line of credit.

Your credit score helps lenders determine whether or not you’re an equitable borrower. If your details are used to procure a loan, this may negatively impact your credit rating and borrowing capacity.

RateCity offers an efficient and safe way to check your credit score for free. Simply fill out a short form and you’ll receive your credit score from two of the world’s largest credit reporting agencies, Equifax and Experian. This inquiry won’t affect your credit score.

You can also sign up for email alerts to notify you of any changes made to your score, which may be particularly helpful for Optus customers affected by the data breach, by downloading the app for either iPhone or Android.