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Australia's privacy watchdog has been given millions of dollars to investigate the Optus data breach.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers' first budget, handed down on Tuesday night, included $5.5 million in extra funding for the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.
The money is spread over two years to "investigate and respond to the Optus data breach".
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The agency earlier this month announced an investigation into the massive cyber attack in which hackers stole data from almost 10 million customers.
Optus can be fined up to $2.2 million for each breach if the commissioner finds "serious and/or repeated interferences with privacy".
The beleaguered telecommunications company sent out a letter to customers hours before the budget.
It again apologised for the hack and promised to do better, while laying out a timeline of the measures it said it had taken in an attempt to protect customers.
"We are not aware of any harm coming to any customer from the misuse of their exposed data, but we have reminded all customers to remain vigilant," Optus said.
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"We are aware of 10,000 customer details being released on the web briefly, and those customers were notified so they could take action to replace identity documents and protect themselves.
The company pledged to continue to support the Australian Federal Police's efforts to track down the hackers and repeated that it had commissioned Deloitte to carry out an "independent external review".
"As we move forward from this cyberattack, we make a commitment to you that we will strive to not just do better in the future — but strive for best," Optus said, in a letter that wasn't attributed to any specific company officer.
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The OAIC is looking into whether Optus took "reasonable steps" to protect the information it collected and comply with Australian Privacy principles, as well as whether collecting the details was necessary in the first place.
The OAIC probe is linked to a coordinated Australian Communications and Media Authority investigation.
The budget papers didn't set aside any extra funding for ACMA to carry out its inquiries.
ACMA said its investigation would focus on the company's telco obligations, including "acquisition, authentication, retention, disposal and protection of personal information, and requirements to provide fraud mitigation protections".
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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese previously described the hack as a "a wake-up call" for companies to make sure they were complying with Australian privacy laws.
Optus said 9.8 million customers had data stolen, including 2.1 million personal ID details but believed 7.7 million victims did not need to replace their documents.
Source: 9News
