Security News > 2022 > September > Optus hacker apologizes and allegedly deletes all stolen data
The hacker who claimed to have breached Optus and stolen the data of 11 million customers has withdrawn their extortion demands after facing increased attention by law enforcement.
On September 23, 2022, a hacker using the alias "Optusdata" published a small sample of the stolen data on the Breached hacking forum and demanded that the firm pay a $1,000,000 ransom or the data for 11,000,000 customers would be publicly leaked.
After not receiving a ransom demand, the threat actor released a larger sample of stolen data for 10,000 Optus customers for free on the same hacking forum, allowing threat actors to download and abuse it for their own campaigns.
Today, reports from victims of the data breach have started to receive messages demanding the payment of AUD 2,000 within two days, or their data would be sold to other hackers.
Today, the alleged Optus hacker posted a new message on Breached stating that the stolen data will no longer be sold or leaked to anyone due to increased scrutiny on the data breach.
The threat actor also claimed that the stolen data had been deleted from their device that held the only copy and apologized to both the exposed Optus customers and the company.