Passport numbers breached in Optus hack don’t need to be replaced

Optus customers whose passport numbers are among the 150,000 stolen in last month’s cyberattack have been told by the federal government they do not need to replace their travel documents.

But the Australian Passport Office has advised affected Australians who do choose to get new passports that Optus will honour its promise to cover the cost, which is up to $308 each.

“Your passport is still safe to use for international travel,” the office has told affected Optus customers. “The passport numbers cannot be used to obtain a new passport. Robust controls are used to protect passports from identity takeover, including sophisticated facial recognition technology.”

The government has also blocked passport numbers that were included in the hack from being used to verify people’s identities through an online checking service that is used by departments and banks. That change means people may have to show their physical passports if using them for identification.

Optus parent company Singtel, an international telecommunications conglomerate headquartered in Singapore, told its local stock exchange on Friday that Optus was communicating the government advice to customers.

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Late last month, when the government was riding a wave of consumer anger over the hack in which online criminals accessed data on almost 10 million current and former customers, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong demanded Optus cover the cost of passport replacements.

“They will cover the costs of replacing affected customers’ passports,” Albanese said at the time. “I think that is entirely appropriate.”

A survey from around that time, conducted by Resolve Strategic for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, found 84 per cent of respondents believed Optus should pay to reissue Medicare cards, passports and other identification documents when personal details had been released.