Optus has said that it has set aside $140 million to cover the costs related to its huge data leak declared in September, as part of its half-year financial results released on Thursday.

The telco says A$140 million has been provided in the current period as an exceptional expense for the expected costs of actions preventing harm to it’s customers, inlcuding the replacement of identity documents.

Singtel CEO Yuen Kuan Moon. says we know there is much work to be done to regain the trust and confidence of our customers in Australia in the wake of the cyber attack.

““We view this matter very seriously as cyber security and the protection of our customers’ information is of critical importance to the Singtel Group.”

While the cyber attack has regrettably interrupted Optus’ momentum at the end of the first half, we expect Optus to come back stronger,” said Yuen

Large-scale data breaches have been occurring in Australia over the past year. According to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, there were 24 data breaches from January to June 2022 that affected 5,000 or more Australians, four of which affected 100,000 or more people.

Despite the data breach compromising the personal data of some 10 million customers, Optus’ operating revenue rose 1% as mobile and fixed businesses generated revenue growth, offsetting the absence of NBN migration revenue.

Australian Information Commissioner and Privacy Commissioner Angelene Falk says the prevalence of large-scale breaches caused by cyber security incidents emphasises the necessity for entities to protect, detect, and respond to the variety of cyber threats in the environment.

There was little change to Optus’ half-year revenue of $3.9 billion compared to the same period last year. Its EBIT increased $51.3 million to $164 million.