The offender faces 17 years behind bars.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) has arrested a 19-year-old from Sydney for attempting to use leaked stolen Optus data for extortion.
According to investigators, the suspect blackmailed the victims of the leak using SMS messages. He demanded that $2,000 be transferred to his account so that the user's personal information would not be used for fraudulent activities.
Police said the teen used a stolen database of 10,200 entries posted on a cybercrime forum by a user named "optusdata".
A search of the perpetrator's home resulted in the seizure of a mobile phone that was used to send text messages to 93 Optus customers.
The police noted that none of the recipients of the messages transferred money to the scammer's account.
The arrested person was charged under two articles:
using a telecommunications network with intent to commit a serious crime (10 years)
use of identification information (7 years).
On September 23, Australia's second largest telecommunications company, Optus, reported a cyberattack, but did not specify the number of customers affected at the time.
It later emerged that the breach affected nearly 2.1 million current and former customers of the company, exposing their license numbers and Medicare identification numbers.
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