Investors could be rightfully concerned about what the recent Optus hack could mean for ASX 200 telco shares such as Telstra Corporation Ltd (ASX: TLS) moving forward.
Cyber attacks are costly to amend. A successful attack costs the company and allows affected users to be up for further liabilities.
The problem is that once one website is hacked and its user database is leaked online, anyone can use these credentials to try to guess the username and password of other accounts the affected users might have. This puts social media, banking, email, and other accounts in danger of also being breached on a broad scale from a single successful attack on a prominent website.
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Ex-Telstra boss responds to Optus breach
It may come as reassuring news that the former Telstra boss David Thodey has underlined the importance of good cyber security practices in an article published by the Australian Financial Review on Wednesday evening.
It may be hoped that Telstra will take Thodey's warning that "it could happen to anyone" seriously and perhaps assuage investors' fears by making an announcement of its own.
Thodey said:
It is the reality of the world in which we live. You've got to be incredibly vigilant. I feel for Optus, it's a difficult situation and I think they're responding as best they can. Because it's going to happen to all of us at some point, and then it's what you do with it or how you respond.
Cybersecurity for all of us, it doesn't matter if you're a small or big business, it is enormously high risk and we all need to be very vigilant about it because it could happen to any of us.
How did telco shares perform on Thursday?
The Telstra share price ended Thursday's session 1.57% higher at $3.88.
Meanwhile, the TPG Telecom Ltd (ASX: TPG) share price also ended the day in the green, up 3.15% to $4.89.
With these telco shares up, it might be unsurprising that the S&P/ASX 200 Telecommunication Services Index (ASX: XTJ) closed 1.83% higher today.
Broader still, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) finished up 1.44%.
Telstra share price snapshot
The Telstra share price is down 8% this year to date and 2.5% over the past month. Meanwhile, the ASX 200 is down 14% and 6% over the same timeframes.
Telstra has a market capitalisation of around $44.13 billion.
