The government put a blowtorch on Optus, so why did Medibank get kid gloves?

“Given the sensitivity of data involved, it should have been taken more seriously from the start,” Paterson said in a text. “Once it was clear a compromised credential was involved there was no excuse.”

Asked about the apparent double standard last week, O’Neil said she was “on the side of the Australian people” and focused on stopping more damage from the hackers’ crimes. Beneath the political cliche, there is truth to her line. For one, the government sees Medibank’s communications as better than Optus’. But more importantly, the ferocity of the minister’s criticism of Optus scared business leaders as much as it delighted the public.

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It worried people in the security apparatus too, who fretted that firms would be too wary of copping a serve from the government that they would limit co-operation with the country’s cyberspies to stop hacks and track down perpetrators. That would be bad indeed. Cyber ransoms are a “prisoner’s dilemma”. It is in each company’s individual interests that they pay to stop the damage but if none did, the hacks would cease. And so O’Neil has adjusted her aim to lambast the unknown online crooks.

MacGibbon, whose credentials make him a trusted talking head in the cybersecurity world, has gone even quieter. That is because Medibank has hired the cybersecurity firm he works for, CyberCX, to aid its response, preventing him from publicly commenting. No doubt Optus wishes it could have done that with O’Neil.

“Given the sensitivity of data involved, it should have been taken more seriously from the start,” Paterson said in a text. “Once it was clear a compromised credential was involved there was no excuse.”

Asked about the apparent double standard last week, O’Neil said she was “on the side of the Australian people” and focused on stopping more damage from the hackers’ crimes. Beneath the political cliche, there is truth to her line. For one, the government sees Medibank’s communications as better than Optus’. But more importantly, the ferocity of the minister’s criticism of Optus scared business leaders as much as it delighted the public.

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It worried people in the security apparatus too, who fretted that firms would be too wary of copping a serve from the government that they would limit co-operation with the country’s cyberspies to stop hacks and track down perpetrators. That would be bad indeed. Cyber ransoms are a “prisoner’s dilemma”. It is in each company’s individual interests that they pay to stop the damage but if none did, the hacks would cease. And so O’Neil has adjusted her aim to lambast the unknown online crooks.

MacGibbon, whose credentials make him a trusted talking head in the cybersecurity world, has gone even quieter. That is because Medibank has hired the cybersecurity firm he works for, CyberCX, to aid its response, preventing him from publicly commenting. No doubt Optus wishes it could have done that with O’Neil.