Last week, millions of current and former Optus customers discovered their personal data may have been stolen in a massive cyberattack on the telecommunications giant.

Up to 9.8 million customers could be affected, making it one of the largest cyberattacks in Australian history.

The customer database accessed by the hackers includes names, dates of birth, phone numbers, email addresses, and even identification documents like passport and driver's licence numbers.

In a post on a hacking forum on Saturday morning, someone claiming to be behind the attack demanded Optus pay them $1.5 million in cryptocurrency to avoid the data being sold on the dark web.

The hack has also prompted calls for the government to clamp down on how companies store and protect our data.

Today on Please Explain, technology editor Nick Bonyhady joins Angus Thomson to talk more about the fallout from the Optus hack.

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