TPG Shares Plummet After Cyber Hack Exposes Customers

Internet services provider TPG became the latest Australian company to be hit by a cyber-attack.

The Telecom giant announced on Wednesday that emails of around 15,000 customers had been accessed by a high-profile hacker.

Company shares dropped following the news, closing down 2.8% - after a cyber breach looking for cryptocurrency and financial information.

TPG is used by thousands of iiNet and Westnet business customers, later the company apologised to its affected consumers.

"We continue to investigate the incident and any potential impact on customers and are advising customers to take necessary precautions. This incident does not affect any home or personal iiNet or Westnet products, such as broadband or mobile," it said in a statement.

In the statement to the ASX, TPG said it plans to reassure affected customers that it had implemented measures to stop the breach.

"Further security measures have been put in place, and we are in the process of contacting all affected customers on the service."

"We have notified the relevant government authorities."

It comes after major telco companies Optus and Telstra continue to clean up the mess left by data breaches. 

Optus told 9.8 million customers that data such as passport numbers and Medicare numbers were breached. While Telstra accidentally released user information online due to a database "misalingment". 

An Australian Cyber Security Centre report in November blamed lacklustre software updates as reasons behind the majority of recent cyber-attacks.

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