Singtel reports second cyber attack after major Optus breach

Singtel has stated that its Dialog division has also been attacked, only weeks after the company revealed that its Australian company Optus had been the target of a significant cyber attack.

The attack on Dialog, an Australian IT services consulting firm, is believed to have impacted around 1,000 employees and less than 20 clients. The initial hacking attempt was detected on September 10th and all systems were shut down as a precaution, before being fully reopened a few days later.

The Dialog compromise is far smaller than the earlier Optus breach, where up to 10 million customers were impacted. Dialog have engaged with a cyber security expert to partner with their IT team on a forensic investigation, as well as monitoring the Dark Web.

“Our ongoing investigations showed no evidence of unauthorised downloading of data. On Friday 7 October 2022 we became aware that a very small sample of Dialog’s data, including some employee personal information, was published on the Dark Web,” says an incident statement from Dialog.

“We are doing our utmost to address the situation and, as a precaution, we are actively engaging with potentially impacted stakeholders to share information, support and advice.”

In recent weeks, the Australian Federal Police have arrested a 19-year-old who is suspected of using the personal data from the Optus breach to extort thousands of dollars from victims. Major companies including Virgin Australia and National Australia Bank are clients of Dialog and may have been impacted by this breach.

Singtel is not a participant in the cyber security accreditation programme established by Singapore earlier this year, according to reports, which adds to calls for the business to place a greater emphasis on cyber security problems. The Singapore-based parent company of Dialog confirmed that the Dialog systems and Optus systems are completely separate and say there is no link between these breaches.