《Sydney Morning Herald 》 reported that if government departments are unwilling to provide discounts, Optus may spend $660 million to help users change their driver's license, passport and Medicare card.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirmed on Friday that all Australians whose passport information is leaked will be borne by Optus.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that due to the lack of comprehensive and detailed data, we can only calculate how much Optus will cost to help Australians renew their certificates based on the published information.
It is understood that nearly 9.8 million Australians have been leaked in this incident, but only 3.7 million passport or driver's license information has been leaked, and nearly 37,000 Medicare information has been leaked.
Considering that some Australians may only have their passport or driver's license information leaked, and some data have expired, it is very difficult to accurately calculate the certificate renewal fee that Optus needs to pay.
(Picture source: Internet)
If calculated based on the more extreme situation, that is, Optus needs to pay a replacement fee of 3 million passports, 3 million driver's licenses and 15,000 Medicare cards (the official confirms that the 22,000 Medicare information leaked has expired), then the overall replacement fee will be as high as $660 million.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the fee for renewal of a driver's license is relatively easy to calculate. Although the charging standards vary from state to state, the average is about $27. Assuming that the government does not provide a batch of certificate renewal discount, Optus will spend $81 million to help Australians get their driver's license.
is very expensive to replace passports compared to driver's licenses. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that generally speaking, changing a new
passport costs $193. If the government departments do not provide batch certificate renewal discounts, Optus will pay $580 million to help 3 million Australians change their passports
.
(Picture source: Sydney Morning Herald)
is the last Medicare card. Generally speaking, Australians do not need to spend money to replace Medicare card. But assuming Optus is going to pay $20 per card, the total cost is about $300,000.
To sum up, in extreme cases, Optus will pay $661.3 million to help Australians get their passports, driver's licenses and Medicare cards.
(Image source: Internet)
Previously, Optus had announced that it would provide affected users with a 12-month free credit monitoring service Equifax. The service costs $14.95 per month. Assuming 2.8 million users enjoy the service, Optus will bear $502 million for it.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that in the one-year period to March this year, Optus parent company Singtel's profit was $2.1 billion.
