Major Australian energy supplier confirms customer data compromised

An Australian energy company serving nearly 5 million customers announced Thursday that it suffered a data breach and that it is working with federal agencies to investigate. 

On Wednesday, Sydney-based Origin Energy had said in a brief announcement that it was “investigating a potential security incident” after the news outlet The Australian reported that a purported hacker had sent what they claimed to be a sample of stolen records from the company. 

In a second update, Origin confirmed that customer data had been compromised and that it is “working to understand the total number of impacted customers.” The data may include account information, the last four digits of credit card numbers and last three digits of bank account numbers, as well as names, addresses and dates of birth.  

Origin CEO Frank Calabria apologized to customers. 

“One of our key priorities is taking action to secure our systems and ensure no further unauthorised access,” he said. “We are working with independent cyber experts to support Origin, and that work is continuing alongside the work of authorities.” 

The breach of Australia’s largest electricity and gas retailer follows the recent compromise of sensitive medical data belonging to a major Australian network of healthcare clinics. Partnered Health confirmed that patients who visited at least 21 clinics may have had medical records stolen in a cyberattack.