Optus class action lawyers to access ACMA case against telco on data breach
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The news: The Optus class action lawsuit linked to the telco's 2022 mass data breach will have access to the media regulator's pleadings against the company in a separate lawsuit before the courts, following orders by Federal Court of Australia Judge Jonathan Beach today.
The context: Beach made the orders despite the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) not being represented at the class action case management hearing in Melbourne this morning, saying he was confident any confidentiality concerns would be addressed.
ACMA announced its lawsuit against Optus in May, following a class action lawsuit over the cyberattack. Beach is presiding over both matters.
ACMA is suing Optus over allegations that it failed to protect the confidentiality of its customers’ personal information from unauthorised interference or unauthorised access.
The allegation of failing to protect personal information overlaps with allegations in the class action lawsuit.
Beach is considering joining parts of the ACMA case to the class action lawsuit and hearing overlapping issues at the same time, but has not made a final decision on this point.
The 2022 data breach affected the personal information of almost 10 million current and former Optus customers, after a cyberattack exposed names, addresses, passport numbers and drivers licence details.
Beach has scheduled the Optus class action case for a further case management hearing on 11 December, which he aims to hear jointly with a case management hearing in the ACMA case.
What they said: "I'm not fussed that ACMA may not be here to formally consent or oppose or not oppose. You’re not really saying anything to me other than a timing or process issue, but looking at the substantial question of whether confidentiality is going to be maintained, well, it clearly is," Beach told lawyers in the class action case today.
"I’ll try and marry up the ACMA case or at least bring it back so I can deal with the two together and we can decide sooner rather than later whether the two are joined up for certain issues, or whether I should let them proceed separately," Beach said.
The source: Federal Court
