Optus Hack: ASIC Warns Market Intermediaries against Possible 'Fraud' – Finance Magnates

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The Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) sent a warning email to the Aussie financial market intermediaries, including brokers, against the risks of possible “identity theft and fraud” amid the Optus data breach.
A copy of the email seen by Finance Magnates asked the market intermediaries to be “extra vigilant in verifying and managing customers’ personal information.”
Finance Magnates also reached out to multiple brokers to know about their preparedness with the ASIC warning, however, at least one broker confirmed that it did not receive ASIC’s email.
Optus is the second largest telecom service provider in Australia. The company created a stir in the country earlier this week after revealing that the personal data of up to 10 million customers were compromised, which include home addresses, drivers’ licenses and passport numbers.
It was the largest data breach by scale in Australia.
This wasn’t a ‘hack’. Optus literally left the door wide open. The perp simply used a connection that wasn’t password protected to download the data.

THAT’S a bigger story than a hack.

Optus are culpable because the data was exposed and unprotected.

It wasn’t hacked.

Bond, Futures, Stock Brokers
The hacker initially asked for $1 million as ransom from the company and threatened to publish 10,000 Optus customers every day until the money is received. However, an anonymous online account claiming to be the hacker dropped the ransom demand recently and has assured the deleting of the compromised data.
“At this stage, it appears that the data breach is limited to retail customers (and potentially small businesses) while enterprise accounts do not appear to be impacted,” ASIC’s email stated.
“The email from ASIC ASIC The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is the prime regulator in Australia for corporate, markets, financial services, and consumer credit. It is empowered under the financial service laws to facilitate, regulate, and enforce Australian financial laws. The Australian Commission was set up and is administered under the Australian Securities and Investment Commission Act of 2001. ASIC was initially the Australian Securities Commission based on the 1989 ASC Act. Initially, the idea was to unite regulators in Australia by replacing the National Companies and Securities Commission and the Corporate Affairs offices. ASIC does not regulate business or register business structures, only business names. One of the unique features of the Australian regulator is that over 90% of its operating budget comes from fees and fines levies. These fees for service, including company registration fees and licensing fees for banks, brokers, and other financial institutions. What is ASIC Responsible For?The regulator is charged with protecting the public from financial fraud and to make sure the investor is knowledgeable and understands their involvement. To this end, the Commission provides a license to each Financial Services provider. ASIC tests and assesses the qualification and experience of Financial Advisors. An Australian financial services (AFS) licensee, an authorized representative, employee or director of an AFS licensee, or an employee or director of a related body corporate of an AFS licensee, is authorized to provide personal advice to retail clients concerning relevant financial products to retail clients ASIC monitors the behavior of Financial Advisors and can access fines and remove or suspend their license. The regulator also licenses all investment and trading companies doing business in Australia. One service of the most outstanding benefits is the Australian Market Regulation Feed. To monitor trading activity, brokers and market operators have to facilitate access to ASIC’s Integrated Market Surveillance System. This means brokers and other relevant bodies in the registry must allow daily access to: All orders, trades, and quotes that are processed and circulated by the trading engine All messages related to trading sessions, product price and status They are closely monitoring all online and day trading The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is the prime regulator in Australia for corporate, markets, financial services, and consumer credit. It is empowered under the financial service laws to facilitate, regulate, and enforce Australian financial laws. The Australian Commission was set up and is administered under the Australian Securities and Investment Commission Act of 2001. ASIC was initially the Australian Securities Commission based on the 1989 ASC Act. Initially, the idea was to unite regulators in Australia by replacing the National Companies and Securities Commission and the Corporate Affairs offices. ASIC does not regulate business or register business structures, only business names. One of the unique features of the Australian regulator is that over 90% of its operating budget comes from fees and fines levies. These fees for service, including company registration fees and licensing fees for banks, brokers, and other financial institutions. What is ASIC Responsible For?The regulator is charged with protecting the public from financial fraud and to make sure the investor is knowledgeable and understands their involvement. To this end, the Commission provides a license to each Financial Services provider. ASIC tests and assesses the qualification and experience of Financial Advisors. An Australian financial services (AFS) licensee, an authorized representative, employee or director of an AFS licensee, or an employee or director of a related body corporate of an AFS licensee, is authorized to provide personal advice to retail clients concerning relevant financial products to retail clients ASIC monitors the behavior of Financial Advisors and can access fines and remove or suspend their license. The regulator also licenses all investment and trading companies doing business in Australia. One service of the most outstanding benefits is the Australian Market Regulation Feed. To monitor trading activity, brokers and market operators have to facilitate access to ASIC’s Integrated Market Surveillance System. This means brokers and other relevant bodies in the registry must allow daily access to: All orders, trades, and quotes that are processed and circulated by the trading engine All messages related to trading sessions, product price and status They are closely monitoring all online and day trading Read this Term is very prudent given the scale of the Optus data breach,” Sophie Gerber, the Founder and Co-CEO of TRAction told Finance Magnates. “Although it has been sent to a subset of AFSL holders, really it applies equally to all businesses that deal with Australians regardless of whether they are in financial services.”
“Although it has been claimed that the hacked data has now been deleted, there is no doubt a level of skepticism given the nature of the party involved.”
Indeed, Optus also agreed to bear the multimillion-dollar cost of changing the driver’s license number of Australians affected by the data breach.
Earlier, ASIC clarified that it expects all regulated market participants to “address cyber risk as part of their AFS license obligations Obligations In finance, an obligation is a financial responsibility where the terms of a contract must be met. Should an obligation between parties fail then the party who is at default may face legal action. In this scenario, the guilty party will not only have to agree to pay the set amount to fulfill the contractual arrangement but may also be responsible for covering all legal proceedings cost. Routine payments or outstanding debt of any kind are considered financial obligations, so if someone owes you or will owe you money that is considered an obligation. Different Types of ObligationsBonds, banknotes, and coins are examples of obligations because they assure users that they are accredited with the face value of that item. Obligations play a considerable role in personal finance and should be included in every budget. While every budget is different from one another, individuals can use the Financial Obligation Ratio (FOR) that is published quarterly by the Federal Reserve Board as a good reference point on how to best structure individual budgets. For those in the process of retirement planning, obligations should be scrutinized with a wide scope.These should include typical financial obligations such as mortgage payments and healthcare expenses that may incur. In trading, obligations are dealt in the form of put options and short selling or they may refer to the selling of shares on the next trading day after they were purchased in delivery. When obligations fail to be met and legal proceedings have begun, the severity of the punishment set forth is primarily determined by the terms of the contract although juror and judge intervention may lessen the obligations that must be met to fulfill the contract. In finance, an obligation is a financial responsibility where the terms of a contract must be met. Should an obligation between parties fail then the party who is at default may face legal action. In this scenario, the guilty party will not only have to agree to pay the set amount to fulfill the contractual arrangement but may also be responsible for covering all legal proceedings cost. Routine payments or outstanding debt of any kind are considered financial obligations, so if someone owes you or will owe you money that is considered an obligation. Different Types of ObligationsBonds, banknotes, and coins are examples of obligations because they assure users that they are accredited with the face value of that item. Obligations play a considerable role in personal finance and should be included in every budget. While every budget is different from one another, individuals can use the Financial Obligation Ratio (FOR) that is published quarterly by the Federal Reserve Board as a good reference point on how to best structure individual budgets. For those in the process of retirement planning, obligations should be scrutinized with a wide scope.These should include typical financial obligations such as mortgage payments and healthcare expenses that may incur. In trading, obligations are dealt in the form of put options and short selling or they may refer to the selling of shares on the next trading day after they were purchased in delivery. When obligations fail to be met and legal proceedings have begun, the severity of the punishment set forth is primarily determined by the terms of the contract although juror and judge intervention may lessen the obligations that must be met to fulfill the contract. Read this Term.” However, the regulator does not recommend any technical standards or expert guidance as a part of the Australia Financial Services license requirements.
“ASIC has issued quite a number of media releases about cybersecurity and combined with the RI Advice, they show the level of scrutiny being applied to these issues. AFSL holders should be taking active steps to actively manage their cybersecurity and identity verification processes, staying on top of all developments and adapting accordingly,” Gerber added.
The Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) sent a warning email to the Aussie financial market intermediaries, including brokers, against the risks of possible “identity theft and fraud” amid the Optus data breach.
A copy of the email seen by Finance Magnates asked the market intermediaries to be “extra vigilant in verifying and managing customers’ personal information.”
Finance Magnates also reached out to multiple brokers to know about their preparedness with the ASIC warning, however, at least one broker confirmed that it did not receive ASIC’s email.
Optus is the second largest telecom service provider in Australia. The company created a stir in the country earlier this week after revealing that the personal data of up to 10 million customers were compromised, which include home addresses, drivers’ licenses and passport numbers.
It was the largest data breach by scale in Australia.
This wasn’t a ‘hack’. Optus literally left the door wide open. The perp simply used a connection that wasn’t password protected to download the data.

THAT’S a bigger story than a hack.

Optus are culpable because the data was exposed and unprotected.

It wasn’t hacked.

Bond, Futures, Stock Brokers
The hacker initially asked for $1 million as ransom from the company and threatened to publish 10,000 Optus customers every day until the money is received. However, an anonymous online account claiming to be the hacker dropped the ransom demand recently and has assured the deleting of the compromised data.
“At this stage, it appears that the data breach is limited to retail customers (and potentially small businesses) while enterprise accounts do not appear to be impacted,” ASIC’s email stated.
“The email from ASIC ASIC The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is the prime regulator in Australia for corporate, markets, financial services, and consumer credit. It is empowered under the financial service laws to facilitate, regulate, and enforce Australian financial laws. The Australian Commission was set up and is administered under the Australian Securities and Investment Commission Act of 2001. ASIC was initially the Australian Securities Commission based on the 1989 ASC Act. Initially, the idea was to unite regulators in Australia by replacing the National Companies and Securities Commission and the Corporate Affairs offices. ASIC does not regulate business or register business structures, only business names. One of the unique features of the Australian regulator is that over 90% of its operating budget comes from fees and fines levies. These fees for service, including company registration fees and licensing fees for banks, brokers, and other financial institutions. What is ASIC Responsible For?The regulator is charged with protecting the public from financial fraud and to make sure the investor is knowledgeable and understands their involvement. To this end, the Commission provides a license to each Financial Services provider. ASIC tests and assesses the qualification and experience of Financial Advisors. An Australian financial services (AFS) licensee, an authorized representative, employee or director of an AFS licensee, or an employee or director of a related body corporate of an AFS licensee, is authorized to provide personal advice to retail clients concerning relevant financial products to retail clients ASIC monitors the behavior of Financial Advisors and can access fines and remove or suspend their license. The regulator also licenses all investment and trading companies doing business in Australia. One service of the most outstanding benefits is the Australian Market Regulation Feed. To monitor trading activity, brokers and market operators have to facilitate access to ASIC’s Integrated Market Surveillance System. This means brokers and other relevant bodies in the registry must allow daily access to: All orders, trades, and quotes that are processed and circulated by the trading engine All messages related to trading sessions, product price and status They are closely monitoring all online and day trading The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is the prime regulator in Australia for corporate, markets, financial services, and consumer credit. It is empowered under the financial service laws to facilitate, regulate, and enforce Australian financial laws. The Australian Commission was set up and is administered under the Australian Securities and Investment Commission Act of 2001. ASIC was initially the Australian Securities Commission based on the 1989 ASC Act. Initially, the idea was to unite regulators in Australia by replacing the National Companies and Securities Commission and the Corporate Affairs offices. ASIC does not regulate business or register business structures, only business names. One of the unique features of the Australian regulator is that over 90% of its operating budget comes from fees and fines levies. These fees for service, including company registration fees and licensing fees for banks, brokers, and other financial institutions. What is ASIC Responsible For?The regulator is charged with protecting the public from financial fraud and to make sure the investor is knowledgeable and understands their involvement. To this end, the Commission provides a license to each Financial Services provider. ASIC tests and assesses the qualification and experience of Financial Advisors. An Australian financial services (AFS) licensee, an authorized representative, employee or director of an AFS licensee, or an employee or director of a related body corporate of an AFS licensee, is authorized to provide personal advice to retail clients concerning relevant financial products to retail clients ASIC monitors the behavior of Financial Advisors and can access fines and remove or suspend their license. The regulator also licenses all investment and trading companies doing business in Australia. One service of the most outstanding benefits is the Australian Market Regulation Feed. To monitor trading activity, brokers and market operators have to facilitate access to ASIC’s Integrated Market Surveillance System. This means brokers and other relevant bodies in the registry must allow daily access to: All orders, trades, and quotes that are processed and circulated by the trading engine All messages related to trading sessions, product price and status They are closely monitoring all online and day trading Read this Term is very prudent given the scale of the Optus data breach,” Sophie Gerber, the Founder and Co-CEO of TRAction told Finance Magnates. “Although it has been sent to a subset of AFSL holders, really it applies equally to all businesses that deal with Australians regardless of whether they are in financial services.”
“Although it has been claimed that the hacked data has now been deleted, there is no doubt a level of skepticism given the nature of the party involved.”
Indeed, Optus also agreed to bear the multimillion-dollar cost of changing the driver’s license number of Australians affected by the data breach.
Earlier, ASIC clarified that it expects all regulated market participants to “address cyber risk as part of their AFS license obligations Obligations In finance, an obligation is a financial responsibility where the terms of a contract must be met. Should an obligation between parties fail then the party who is at default may face legal action. In this scenario, the guilty party will not only have to agree to pay the set amount to fulfill the contractual arrangement but may also be responsible for covering all legal proceedings cost. Routine payments or outstanding debt of any kind are considered financial obligations, so if someone owes you or will owe you money that is considered an obligation. Different Types of ObligationsBonds, banknotes, and coins are examples of obligations because they assure users that they are accredited with the face value of that item. Obligations play a considerable role in personal finance and should be included in every budget. While every budget is different from one another, individuals can use the Financial Obligation Ratio (FOR) that is published quarterly by the Federal Reserve Board as a good reference point on how to best structure individual budgets. For those in the process of retirement planning, obligations should be scrutinized with a wide scope.These should include typical financial obligations such as mortgage payments and healthcare expenses that may incur. In trading, obligations are dealt in the form of put options and short selling or they may refer to the selling of shares on the next trading day after they were purchased in delivery. When obligations fail to be met and legal proceedings have begun, the severity of the punishment set forth is primarily determined by the terms of the contract although juror and judge intervention may lessen the obligations that must be met to fulfill the contract. In finance, an obligation is a financial responsibility where the terms of a contract must be met. Should an obligation between parties fail then the party who is at default may face legal action. In this scenario, the guilty party will not only have to agree to pay the set amount to fulfill the contractual arrangement but may also be responsible for covering all legal proceedings cost. Routine payments or outstanding debt of any kind are considered financial obligations, so if someone owes you or will owe you money that is considered an obligation. Different Types of ObligationsBonds, banknotes, and coins are examples of obligations because they assure users that they are accredited with the face value of that item. Obligations play a considerable role in personal finance and should be included in every budget. While every budget is different from one another, individuals can use the Financial Obligation Ratio (FOR) that is published quarterly by the Federal Reserve Board as a good reference point on how to best structure individual budgets. For those in the process of retirement planning, obligations should be scrutinized with a wide scope.These should include typical financial obligations such as mortgage payments and healthcare expenses that may incur. In trading, obligations are dealt in the form of put options and short selling or they may refer to the selling of shares on the next trading day after they were purchased in delivery. When obligations fail to be met and legal proceedings have begun, the severity of the punishment set forth is primarily determined by the terms of the contract although juror and judge intervention may lessen the obligations that must be met to fulfill the contract. Read this Term.” However, the regulator does not recommend any technical standards or expert guidance as a part of the Australia Financial Services license requirements.
“ASIC has issued quite a number of media releases about cybersecurity and combined with the RI Advice, they show the level of scrutiny being applied to these issues. AFSL holders should be taking active steps to actively manage their cybersecurity and identity verification processes, staying on top of all developments and adapting accordingly,” Gerber added.
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