What does social media make of the debacle that is Optus’ data hack?
It’s been a busy week on the socials as people comment on a hack that has had all sorts of ramifications.
Queues are going around corners as people line up for new identification documents.
People are searching through their Optus accounts to work out what they have provided for security purposes.
That leads to feelings of worry, anger and uncertainty. And that’s perfect for a social media pile-on.
Optus customers were quick to express their strong disappointment that Optus chose to notify media before contacting customers.
Although Optus says it went to media first to spread the message quicker, customers felt like they had become less of a priority at the worst possible time.
And so it began.
I’ve been observing the social media commentary of the last week and here are my observations:
· Incompetence in a crisis equals disaster
Social media’s biggest criticism for Optus is their perceived incompetence through its handling of the data breach.
It’s been speculated by several publications that the hacker barely ‘hacked’ to access the data.
This was first reported by a Sydney journalist who posted a Twitter thread containing screenshots of a conversation he’d had with the supposed hacker.
Whether it’s the real hacker or not, the laws of social media say that if it’s in my feed it must be true, and it didn’t take long for others to join in on the beat down.
This also followed the online backlash from customers who first heard about the breach via the news.
· Australian’s want personal identification requirements revisited
A popular topic that attracted strong engagement on social media was the proposal that new laws be introduced that prevent telecommunications providers storing personal information for any future use.
The popular suggestion came from a Twitter user who said personal information should be provided at a one-time-only proof of identification check then destroyed.
The tweet has attracted enough attention to sit among the top posts of the #OptusHack trending topic on Twitter.
· The online conversation quickly became political
A key moment on social media came when Cyber Security Minister shared a clip on Twitter in which she says the ‘hack’ was not sophisticated.
The clip fuelled the ongoing belief that Optus was incompetent but sparked extensive political discussion among users.
One reader replied: “And the data was available because of legislation Labor supported.”
Other readers added conspiracy to the discussion suggesting the hack might have been an inside job – you can imagine the can of worms that opened.
· The importance of the right language
In any crisis it’s very important to choose your words wisely.
Unfortunately, Optus doesn’t seem to meet the mark with its communications to customers.
The most common posts on social media the last few days are screenshots of emails or text messages from Optus.
The main thing everyone points out – no apology.
Customers are sharing screenshots of their emailed bills and Optus promotions where the customer buys in for the chance to win.
There may well be an apology included in some of the communications but I’m not an Optus customer so I can’t be sure.
In the week since the breach, 10,000 Optus customers saw their data leaked shortly before the hacker made a surprising apology which mentioned the data had since been deleted.
Fortunately no additional data has been leaked but I’m not convinced social media is buying that it’s the last we’ll see of the Optus data breach.