The Telstra Corporation Ltd (ASX: TLS) share price is underperforming the market on Tuesday. Its weaker performance comes amid news that hackers accessed the personal data of thousands of current and former Telstra employees.
The historical hack has hit headlines little more than week after Optus revealed it was the centre of a cyber-attack that reportedly saw the data of nearly 10 million Australians briefly ransomed.
Right now, the Telstra share price is trading 0.52% higher at $3.86.
Meanwhile, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is up 3.41% and the S&P/ASX 200 Communication Index (ASX: XTJ) has lifted 1.89%.
Telstra share price underperforms on Tuesday
The Telstra share price is edging into the green on Tuesday. At the same time, the company is in the headlines as a previous data hack comes to light.
Hackers who had previously accessed the names and email addresses of staff employed by the telco prior to 2017 have now revealed the information.
It's claimed they accessed the data through a third party previously responsible for Telstra's staff rewards program.
A Telstra spokesperson says no customer account information was caught up in the attack. They believe the data has been published now in an attempt to benefit from the Optus breach.
Reporting across multiple news publications indicates 30,000 past and present employees have had their information published on the same forum as used in the Optus breach.
Telstra has informed both authorities and employees of the breach. It is also working to notify former employees despite the data representing 'minimal risk' to them.
Meanwhile, Optus has appointed Deloitte to lead a forensic review into its far larger cyberattack.
Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin commented:
We're deeply sorry that this has happened and we recognise the significant concern it has caused many people. While our overwhelming focus remains on protecting our customers and minimising the harm that might come from the theft of their information, we are determined to find out what went wrong.
The telco also revealed that 2.1 million Australians have had an identity document number exposed in the hack. Of those, 900,000 identifying numbers had expired when exposed.
