Telstra has reportedly asked privacy commissioner Timothy Pilgrim for extra time with regards to its response to the customer data breach last year,  which forced the telco to disable its online billing, BigPond self-care and My Account functions. 

The breach that exposed account details, including passwords, user names and email addresses, of just under one million customers for a significant period of time prompted Mr Pilgrim to launch an investigation in December.

The Office of the Federal Privacy Commissioner was expected to release a report on the investigation in January but a spokesperson for the office has told The Australian that Telstra has been granted extra time to make its response.

According to the paper, the report is now expected to be released in March.

Telstra was asked to provide the privacy commissioner with a detailed written report on the incident covering how the breach occurred, what information, if any, was compromised and what steps have been taken to prevent a re-occurrence.

The telco was also conducting an internal investigation of the events leading up to the breach while working with the privacy commissioner.