An estimated 100,000 people in Australia joined a class action lawsuit against telecommunications giant Optus on 21 April 2023, seeking to compensate them for the impact of a significant data breach in September 2022.
The lawsuit accuses Optus of breaching fundamental privacy principles and claims the company failed to protect or take reasonable steps to protect current and former customers' personal information. The plaintiffs are seeking compensation for economic losses as well as non-economic losses.
The breach compromised the personal information of nearly 10 million current and former Optus customers. Of those, approximately 10,000 had their data exposed on the Dark Web.