Only a minor breach, says broadband dept

The Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy has confirmed a minor "technical breach" occurred in the security of information it was holding about Telstra's network, but denied the issue could be classified as a leak.

Geoff Booth
(Credit: Telstra)

Telstra NBN engagement lead Geoff Booth had said earlier this week that Telstra had been advised by the department of a potential breach or failure in the protection of its network information.

The department said today that although there had been an apparent technical breach of the rules to protect network information, it was not a leak, because that would imply that the information was actively and deliberately disclosed.

"The apparent breach is very minor in nature and it did not result in any disclosure of information beyond the entity to whom the information was originally provided," a spokesperson for the department said.

Telstra's Booth had said that the full details of the breach had not yet been made clear to the company. The department said it was currently waiting on Telstra's request for further information and would be as helpful as possible.

Telstra had raised the issue of other bidders for the fibre-to-the-node National Broadband Network still having its information, which it believed could help them build out their own networks. Telstra said it had only been advised of one tenderer having destroyed the information.

Telstra has long been concerned about its network information being compromised which had led to a delay in the fibre-to-the-node network process while the government introduced legislation to make the provision of necessary network information compulsory.