ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
A 9-year-old boy from our nation’s self-serving, sanctimonious “first state” of New South Wales has apologised for hacking into Optus and pinching the personal details of millions of people before holding them ransom for a million Australian lira.
The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, confessed to his parents that he was able to simply scrape identifying personal details from the telco’s website using skills he learned in a school computer class and online.
Parents told investigators from the AFP that he got the ransom idea after watching 2000 action thriller Proof of Life with his father last week.
As a result of his actions, the boy has been grounded for the entire school holidays.
Detective Declan Taylor from the AFP said they’re prepared to accept the child’s apology and feel grounding the child for one entire school holiday period is harsh but called for.
“Yeah look, this isn’t about the hacker, really,” said Detective Taylor.
“It’s about Optus dropping the ball here – and this isn’t just any ball drop. This is Ben Hunt in the 2015 NRL Grand Final. Optus should be doing more to fix this. I mean, from what I’ve been led to believe, this hack wasn’t exceptionally difficult. Like the kid’s 9-years-old and he’s out-foxed a multi-billion-dollar company,”
“There are questions that need to be answered.”
The Advocate spoke briefly to Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, who said that despite being ultimately responsible for the most damaging leak of personal data in Australian history, she will not be resigning.
“I am sorry that this happened and people are upset but look, me resigning won’t help anything. I get paid well north of $5m a year. Plus perks, plus bonus. I’m not giving that up because a few people had their medicare number stolen,”
“I don’t have any shareholders to answer to, either. So go cry in the car because nobody wants to see it.”
More to come.
