Australia’s largest energy company has given a chilling warning about the country’s cyber security just months after the data of 900,000 customers was stolen.
In his address to shareholders at the Origin Energy annual general meeting, chairman Scott Perkins said cyber attacks remained a real threat to Australian businesses.
“Unfortunately, individuals and businesses, no matter where they are around the world, face a growing threat from this sort of criminally motivated cyber activity,” he said
“The threat environment is constantly evolving, and we will have to work hard to continue to protect the security of our systems and our customers’ information.
“We are committed to that.”
Mr Perkins’ comments follow a cyber attack in July when the data of up to 900,000 of Origin’s more than four million customers was stolen.
Bank details, ID documents, and government concession numbers are among the highly sensitive information exposed in the hack.
Up to 15,000 people had numbers associated with government concessions or schemes taken in the July 2 data breach.
Sixty had their full bank account numbers stolen and another 100 had information from identifying documents taken.
Mr Perkins said Origin would continue to support customers impacted by the data breach.
“Customers place enormous trust in Origin to protect their information, and we do not take that for granted,” Mr Perkins said.
“We have apologised to customers who were affected while providing support and taken a number of steps to enhance the security of our systems to prevent future incidents of this kind.”
He said there was no evidence that any data was published on the dark web but urged customers to remain vigilant to scams.
Origin previously said it was working with the Australian Cyber Security Centre, the National Office of Cyber Security and the Australian Federal Police after tracing the cyber hack to a call centre in the Philippines.
Energy transition harder
Origin Energy chief executive Frank Calabria spoke before the annual general meeting about the importance of cheap power for households and the energy transition.
“Energy underpins everything in our economy – the cost of living for every household, the
competitiveness of every business and Australia’s productivity,” he said.
“The reliability of energy today, and its sustainability into the future, is something everyone depends on.”
Mr Calabria said the easy wins were already achieved, with it getting harder for providers going forward.
He said the next phase of the transition depended on large-scale infrastructure, the build out of transmission lines, renewable projects, firming capacity and energy storage, and delivering that at scale and pace was now the binding constraint.
“The transition is now entering a harder phase. Significant progress is being led by customers
embracing rooftop solar, batteries and EVs,” Mr Calabria said
“Origin’s data shows our customers who have electrified with solar, a battery and an EV are saving around $1000 per annum on their total household energy costs – a significant saving.”