indigo ribbon Gladys Berejiklian, the CEO of Optus and a former premier of New South Wales, has been completely absent since the company’s crisis-causing a huge cyberattack last week.
After joining the corporate juggernauts as Managing Director of Enterprise, Business, and Institution, the high-profile recruitment was revealed in a blaze of publicity in February of last year.
She has subsequently endured a baptism of fire, and despite being referred to by her new employer as a “experienced leader” and having vast crisis management expertise, Ms. Berejiklian hasn’t been seen since the assault was made public.
The Optus data leak from last week, which came after a barrage of consumer complaints and a string of network outages, has been heralded as the largest privacy breach in Australian history.
Despite there being no evidence linking her to any of the problems, Ms. Berejiklian will have a difficult time repairing Optus’s damaged image.
Despite being the spokesperson for Optus’ corporate division, charged with attracting new clients, and engaged in a contentious competition with Telstra and TPG at the moment, she has failed to publicly address the matter.
After ICAC opened an investigation into allegations that she gave financing preference to initiatives promoted by her ex-partner and former MP Daryl Maguire, Ms. Berejiklian resigned from parliament.
The Liberal Party made an effort to persuade her to run again for the Warringah seat in Sydney, which is now held by independent MP Zali Steggall and was held by former prime minister Tony Abbott.
But compared to the situation she is now facing at Optus, where trust in the firm is at an all-time low, playing politics in Canberra would be a piece of cake.
Although Ms. Berejiklian’s compensation in her new Optus position has not been made public, David Burns, group executive enterprise at Telstra, receives a salary of $1.1 million annually.
Last year, she told Nine Radio, “I’m heading in another new route and I’m looking forward to the prospects next year offers.”
I’m anticipating leading a life that is considerably less public.
According to Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, Ms. Berejiklian would be a “game-changer” for their division in charge of commercial clients. She made this statement in February.
Gladys is a seasoned leader, according to Ms. Rosmarin.
Seven months later, the company’s efforts to rebuild trust following the catastrophic data hack would put those abilities praised by her CEO to the absolute test.
Around 10 million Australians had their personal information compromised by the attack, which was made public on Thursday. This information included passport and driver’s license numbers, email addresses, home addresses, dates of birth, and phone numbers.
It came after a spate of Optus outages, which included a significant meltdown in April that prevented hundreds of thousands of users from making calls or using data.
The crises occur as Ms. Berejiklian works to thwart a planned network-sharing agreement between TPG and Telstra and close the gap with Telstra.
The former premier has been opposing the tech merger, arguing that it would reduce regional competition and raise costs.
Optus’s position has been undercut by last week’s disastrous data attack and privacy breach, which might make her working life much more challenging.
Contrarily, Ms. Berejiklian said she was “eager to join an organization that influences the lives of millions of Australians every day” when she joined Optus.
Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin told the media in a statement on Friday morning that the company discovered the cyberattack on Wednesday.
I want to make it quite obvious that we are apologizing to every single one of our consumers,’ she added.
We were informed on Wednesday that some customers’ information had been exposed. We are aware that this incident raises a lot of anxiety.
We responded to this assault using a “what’s best for consumers” philosophy throughout.
“As a result, we decided to use you, the media, to send the strongest possible message to all of our consumers asking them to be on the lookout.
“We are aware that time might be of the essence in these circumstances. So, within less than 24 hours after learning about the occurrence, we called the media.
The CEO of the telecom said that having 9.8 million subscribers affected would be the “very worst case scenario” and that investigations are being performed to determine if state-based hackers or international criminals were responsible.
We’re leaving everything open; it may be state-based actors or criminals, she added.
We’re actively coordinating our investigation with the Australian Federal Police and all other governmental agencies.
No cross contamination exists. We are certain that the few fields we have already described to you are all that exist.
Additionally, we are certain that the figure of 9.8 million is an absolute upper limit.
Customers should be on the lookout for fraudsters posing as them online, a cyber-security expert said, after it was discovered that hackers may have stolen personal information from the complete client database of the telecom.
Customers should be on the lookout for any indications of unusual behaviour, according to Alastair MacGibbon, chief strategy officer of the cyber-security company CyberCX and a former assistant to the prime minister.
He informed the ABC that “personal information has been taken.” ‘A lot of personal data for a number of million individuals and a little less data for another 6 million or so.
They need to check to see if somebody is imitating them, stealing their identity, attempting to get credit in their name, etc.
He said that by investing in credit monitoring, Optus could protect the interests of its clients.
If someone has been using your identity and other data to acquire credit, you will be tracked by credit monitoring agencies, Mr. MacGibbon said.
The cyber specialist expressed concern that thieves would find the personal data amassed by a major organization to be lucrative.
Any organization that collects a lot of information is at danger of this kind of catastrophe happening, he added, since collecting a lot of information makes it more valuable.
It looks like client data theft is the issue here.
By Australian standards, the infringement was “quite substantial,” according to Mr. MacGibbon.
I’m going to assume that the Optus database, which is really important, because my understanding is that it has affected roughly 9 million individuals.
Although uncommon, a creature of this size may exist in a country like Australia.
To prevent any privacy breaches, users are advised to update the passwords for their online services.
In April, hundreds of disgruntled users discovered they were unable to utilize texting, calling, or internet services when they woke up on a Tuesday morning.
Many people vented on social media about how frustrating it was to be unable to call loved ones in case of need.
Is my kid receiving a credit since he needs it to work? a female tweeted. He arrived to check on me since he couldn’t reach me and the phones were out.
I use my phone in case of an emergency, a fall, or when I need help. Is this outage going to be reimbursed?
‘My father was sent to the hospital this morning with chest discomfort and vomiting,’ a second guy stated.
“The cell number you have contacted is no longer connected,” is a message I constantly receiving when I attempt to call my brother and other people. Please improve.’
Numerous others working from home were also impacted by the outcry.
One guy said on social media, “My broadband chose to cut out midway through a customer call this morning.”
Another said: “This is beyond a joke,” and “I believe it’s time to terminate my contract.”
One client offered his straightforward resolution for the issue.
Customer of Optus here. My phone worked when I reset it. I have phone access. Do it then. He tweeted, “Try turning it off and on.