Where is Gladys Berejiklian? Ex-Premier’s low profile as Optus faces grave crisis

Blue Ribbon Optus boss and ex-NSW Prime Minister Gladys Berejiklian has been invisible since the company was plunged into crisis last week by its massive cyber hack.

The high-profile appointment was unveiled in a burst of publicity last February after he joined the corporate giants as Managing Director of Enterprise, Business and Institution.

But she’s had a baptism of fire since then, and despite being called a “proven leader” by her new boss and her extensive experience managing crises, Ms. Berejiklian hasn’t been seen since the attack was revealed.

Last week’s Optus data breach has been hailed as the worst privacy breach in Australian history and follows a flood of customer complaints and a series of network crashes.

While it has not been suggested that she was responsible for any of the problems, Mrs. Berejiklian now faces a mountain she must climb to help restore Optus’s plummeting reputation.

But she has yet to discuss the matter publicly, despite being the face of Optus’ business division, which is tasked with winning new customers and is currently embroiled in a bitter battle with Telstra and TPG.

Ms Berejiklian retired from politics after ICAC launched an investigation into claims she was prioritizing funding for projects pushed by her ex-partner and now ex-MP Daryl Maguire.

The Liberal Party tried to lure her back to fight for Warringah, former Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s Sydney seat, currently held by independent MP Zali Steggall, in the federal election.

But Playing politics in Canberra would be a cinch compared to the job that now awaits her at Optus, with confidence in the company at an all-time low.

Ms Berejiklian’s salary in her new Optus role has not been disclosed, but her Telstra equivalent – David Burns, the group’s executive company – takes home $1.1 million a year.

“I’m going in a different direction and I’m looking forward to the opportunities next year brings,” she told Nine radio last year.

“I’m looking forward to a much less public life.”

Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin said in February that Ms. Berejiklian would be a “game-changer” for their department responsible for corporate clients.

“Gladys is a proven leader,” said Ms. Rosmarin.

Seven months later, its CEO’s lauded skills will be put to the test as the company tries to rebuild trust after the catastrophic data breach.

The hack, revealed on Thursday, released personal details of about 10 million Australians, including passport and driver’s license numbers, email and home addresses, dates of birth and phone numbers.

It followed a string of Optus outages, including a major crash in April that left hundreds of thousands of people unable to make calls or use data.

The series of crises comes as Ms. Berejiklian has to close the gap with Telstra and tries to block a proposed network-sharing deal between TPG and Telstra.

The former prime minister fought the tech merger, claiming it would hurt competition in regional areas and drive up prices.

But last week’s devastating data hack and privacy breach has undermined Optus’ position — and potentially made its work life that much harder.

Ironically, Ms Berejiklian said she was ‘excited’ when she joined Optus to join an organization that affects the lives of millions of Australians every day.”

Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin addressed the media Friday morning and confirmed it discovered the cyber breach on Wednesday.

“I want to start by making sure it’s clear that we apologize to all of our customers,” she said.

“We know this attack is of great concern and it is something we learned on Wednesday that some customers’ information had been compromised.

“We’ve been using what’s best for customer approach to direct our response to this attack all along.

“That’s why we wanted to call on all our customers to be as alert as possible, and we decided to use you, the media.

“We know that time can be of the essence in these situations. So we contacted the media in less than 24 hours from the moment we learned that this incident had taken place.”

The telco boss said 9.8 million affected customers would be the “absolute worst-case scenario” and said it was being investigated whether it was carried out by foreign criminals or state hackers.

“We keep it all open, it could be criminal, it could be state-based actors,” she said.

“We are working closely with all government agencies and the Australian Federal Police to investigate.

“There is no cross-contamination. We are confident that the limited number of fields we have mentioned to you is its size.

“And we’re also confident that the 9.8 million is an absolute upper limit.”

A cybersecurity expert said customers should watch out for criminals impersonating them online after hackers may have stolen personal information from telco’s entire customer database.

Alastair MacGibbon, chief strategy officer at cybersecurity firm CyberCX and a former adviser to the prime minister, said customers should be vigilant for signs of suspicious activity.

“Personal information has been stolen,” he told ABC. ‘A lot of personal information for several million people and a little less information for about 6 million more.

“They should see if criminals impersonate them, or steal their identities, try to get credit in their name…etc.”

He said Optus can protect their customers’ interests by paying for credit monitoring.

“That way you will be checked by credit monitoring services if someone has used your name and other details to get credit,” Mr MacGibbon said.

The cyber expert warned that the personal information collected by a large organization is “potentially valuable to criminals.”

“If you collect a lot of information, it’s more valuable, so any company that collects a lot of information is at risk of these kinds of incidents happening,” he said.

“Looks like this is about stealing customer data.”

MacGibbon said the breach was “quite significant by Australian standards.”

“I understand it’s about 9 million people who are affected, so I’m going to say it’s probably the Optus database, which is very important,” he said.

“This size is rare, but not entirely unlikely in a place like Australia.”

It is recommended that customers change the passwords of their online services to prevent privacy leaks.

In April, hundreds of frustrated customers woke up Tuesday morning, unable to text, call or use internet services.

Many took to social media to express their frustration at not being able to contact loved ones in an emergency.

“Does my son get credit because he can’t live without it?” a woman tweeted. “He can’t contact me and has come to see how I am doing because the phones are gone.

‘I use the mobile for emergencies and when I fall or need help. Will there be compensation for this outage?’

Another man added: ‘My father was taken to hospital this morning with chest pains and vomiting.

“I’ve tried calling my brother and others but keep getting the message ‘the mobile number you called is no longer connected’. Please do better.’

The outcry also affected hundreds of homeworkers.

“My broadband decided to stop midway through a customer call this morning,” one man wrote.

Another added: ‘I think it’s time to cancel my contract, this is more than a joke.’

A customer shared his simple solution to solve the problem.

‘Optus customer here. I restarted my phone and voila! I can call. So do that. Try turning it off and on,” he tweeted.