Federal Labor Ministers including Bill Shorten Tanya Plibersek and Clare O’Neil, who are well known for their cheap shots when it comes to data security breaches, appear to be ducking for cover today despite another massive data breach at Woolworths owned My Deal that was acquired only last month, they also failed to comment on the recent re Telstra breach or the Medibank Private breach.

This is despite all three Ministers openly criticizing Optus earlier this month.

One reason could be that Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek’s daughter has never shopped at Woolworths or had a MyDeal account, but we do know she owns an Optus phone which was the excuse given for her to slam Optus over their data breaches despite the Singapore Telecom owned Company working hand in hand with various Government departments at the time.

Over the weekend Woolworths revealed that 2.2 million customers of its MyDeal online marketplace arm had been accessed by an unauthorized user using “compromised” credentials. The exposed data includes names, phone numbers, delivery addresses and some customers’ birthdates.

Medibank who was also hacked recently claim that they are still determining whether sensitive financial information of customers had been breached.

MyDeal does not store payment, drivers’ license or passport details and Woolworths said no customer account passwords or payment details had been compromised.

Missing In Action Bill Shorten

Tensions between Optus and Government Services Minister Bill Shorten who is a big fan of unionized businesses were on show this month when he accused the telco not co-operating over hacked information including passports which the Government has come out and said does not been replaced and driving licenses which the NSW Government has also said does not need to be replaced.

Woolworths completed the acquisition of 80 per cent of MyDeal, for $243 million just last month, now they are hosing down the data breach that resulted in confidential personal information falling into the hands of hackers.

Shorten said requests for help by Services Australia had gone unanswered despite Optus working with the Australian Federal Police and the Federal Governments Cyber Security Unit who are also working with Woolworths executives.

Despite the attacks against Woolworth, Optus, and health insurer Medibank Private, experts are claiming that they appear not to be connected.

“Australia is a viable target now and these attacks in such a short period of time proves that” McGrath Nicol cyber partner Shane Bell told the AFR.

“Some in Australia think that just because we aren’t the biggest market in comparison to Europe and the US, it doesn’t mean you can hide. We are a target, and some are unprepared.”

The Woolworths breach took place in the MyDeal customer relations management software system. Woolworths said the MyDeal.com.au and MyDeal app had not been breached in the hack.

MyDeal operates on a separate platform to Woolworths’ main platform and no Woolworths Group customers or Everyday Rewards scheme records had been compromised.

Woolworths said it had contacted the relevant regulatory authorities and government agencies about the breach.