Facing a federal investigation for the improper possession and storage of highly sensitive documents, former President Donald Trump made a bold claim yesterday.

Speaking on Fox News, Trump referenced a law that allowed a sitting president to declassify anything.

"If you're the president of the United States you can declassify just by saying: 'It's declassified'," he said.

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"Even by thinking about it."

"There doesn't have to be a process."

In the FBI's search of his Mar-a-Lago country club, agents found more than 100 documents marked confidential, secret or top secret, including three in the president's desk.

Trump has repeatedly stated those documents had been previously declassified, though his lawyers have assiduously avoided making those claims in court.

But a three-judge panel reviewing the case has responded to Trump's claims nevertheless.

"(Trump) suggests that he may have declassified these documents when he was President," the opinion from the three judges said.

"But the record contains no evidence that any of these records were declassified."

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But even if Trump could prove he declassified the documents in his possession, he could still be in serious legal trouble.

Under the Espionage Act, a person can be charged for mishandling sensitive documents, whether they have been declassified or not.

And Trump could still be charged under the Presidential Records Act, because declassified or not, those documents are the property of the federal government and not him.

"In any event, at least for these purposes, the declassification argument is a red herring because declassifying an official document would not change its content or render it personal," the opinion read.

"So even if we assumed that (Trump) did declassify some or all of the documents, that would not explain why he has a personal interest in them."

Even Trump's own party has been unimpressed by the argument a president could declassify a document with the power of his mind alone.

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"The process is probably more complicated than that," Senator Lindsey Graham, usually an ardent Trump defender, said.

Senator Mike Rounds said mishandling sensitive documents was a "very serious issue".

"People can get hurt, people can get killed if it's not stored correctly, and if that information gets out," he said.

In further bad news for the former president, what appeared to be a legal victory last week has not panned out as he may have hoped.

His legal team argued successfully that a special master be appointed to sort through Trump's documents to determine what the Department of Justice should be able to access.

But the special master they pushed to have appointed, veteran judge Raymond Dearie, has not made things easy for Trump's legal team.

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"Let's not belittle the fact that we are dealing with at least potentially legitimately classified information," Dearie told the court today.

He responded to suggestions by Trump himself that the FBI had planted documents during their Mar-a-Lago raid.

Dearie gave Trump's lawyers a week to state what items on the FBI inventory of seized documents were not taken from Mar-a-Lago.

"This submission shall be (Trump)'s final opportunity to raise any factual dispute as to the completeness and accuracy of the Detailed Property Inventory."

He also pressed the lawyers to say whether Trump had actually declassified any of the documents.

They declined to answer.

If Trump is proved to have mishandled, hid or destroyed government records, he could face prison time.

This comes the same week the New York attorney-general announced a $375 million lawsuit against him for fraud.

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The Optus cyber attack this week has the potential to be the biggest and frankly most dangerous in the country when it comes to the impact on everyday Aussies.

Optus' own business operations have not been affected, meaning your mobile, home or broadband haven't had outages. But the impact on customers could last years and be devastating. 

If you're one of the potentially 9.8 million customers whose data may now be in the hands of hackers, scammers or those seeking to commit identity fraud, you have every right to be worried.

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I'm an Optus customer – is my data part of this breach?

At this stage, Optus is still investigating the cause and source of the attack, along with just what data was obtained.

Over the next few days, Optus hopes to contact all customers to let them know if they were included or not.

And if you were included, how much of your information may have been obtained.

https://twitter.com/Optus/status/1573104683136081921?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1573104683136081921%7Ctwgr%5Ecc9b72cb8be0c3b4602aa405451cbc8390fb871b%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.9news.com.au%2Fnational%2Foptus-cyberattack-telecommunications-defends-response-apologises-to-customers%2F68c6c534-b5cc-40bd-bede-bf1438ef7986

In the worst case scenario, there are millions of people whose names, addresses, birth dates, phone numbers, email addresses are in the hands of cyber criminals.

Today Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin said numbers from identity documents like passports and drivers licences may also be compromised, however pictures were not.

Optus said it will let customers know which category they fall into.

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What should Optus customers be doing today?

While there is little you can do until we know for sure what has been stolen, this is an important time to look at securing all your accounts.

In particular, your bank account logins and email logins.

When you do this, ensure that you have also enabled "Two Factor Authentication" on those accounts, and accounts like your social media.

This means it is harder for any hacker or scammer to get into your accounts using the information they may have gathered here.

Your Optus password and payment information details, like credit card numbers, are not part of the attack. However, often our passwords can be guessed from our personal information, or even found from previous other data breaches.

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So, lock down your accounts today.

Also, you should keep a close eye on your online accounts and check for any unusual activity, both in terms of social media but also banking and financial accounts.

Importantly, increase your own awareness and vigilance around SMS and email messages and tell your family to do the same.

Our elderly are most vulnerable here so please ask your friends and family about their own situation and talk to them about how SMS and email scams can happen.

In simple terms, be on the lookout for emails that seem to have a large amount of personal information about you in them.

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What could scammers do with my information?

Scammers who get hold of this database of customer information could use it to send more personalised messages via SMS or email.

Be wary of messages that know not only your name, but your birthdate, your address or other personal information.

In the case that you an email or message like this, never click the link within it.

Instead, if you think it's legitimate, take yourself to the website of that company without clicking links, or call them using numbers listed on their official websites.

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Identity fraud – what we know, and what you can do

In addition to these scam emails and texts, the silent threat is the theft of your identity.

Using your name, date of birth, address or ID numbers, scammers can call banks or other institutions and pretend to be you.

Even worse, they could apply for new credit or loans in your name.

If this happens to you, ID Care is an organisation setup to assist with this, and they can provide expert advice.

Optus scam messages: The next threat

Mark my words, the next week will see an influx of fake Optus emails and text messages.

Optus said this is why they haven't reached out to customers, but I think the horse has bolted on that one.

Be on the lookout for messages from "Optus" which report the attack, apologise to customers, and give you advice including clicking a link or actioning a message.

That's going to be a scam.

If you think it's real, visit Optus' own website, login to My Account and any information Optus needs to share with you, should be there.

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A massive red belly black snake has been caught after lurking in a Queensland loungeroom.

A resident in Maleny, on the Sunshine Coast, spotted the thick, long snake in her loungeroom and immediately called Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers.

Stu McKenzie, owner of Sunshine Coast Snake Catchers, arrived and carefully pulled the snake from its hiding spot entwined around a lamp and power cables to hold it up and show its bulky body.

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He estimated the snake is around eight or 10 years old and admired how calm it was during the catching process.

"What a beautiful snake this was! Notice how the snake was so calm and didn't feel threatened at all," McKenzie said.

McKenzie then released the snake into the bush.

McKenzie told 9news.com.au that despite the snake's girth, it isn't the biggest red belly black snake he's ever caught.

"Yeah, I've caught bigger," he said.

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But he added it's rare to see red belly black snakes that big inside homes.

"We do catch red bellies inside from time to time, it's rare they're that big," he said.

As for the resident who had the invited guest, McKenzie said she was nervous but quite relaxed as she was about to have a friend over for a girls' weekend.

"She was about to have a friend visit for a few days, you know cheese and biccies for a girls' couple of days, which made her pretty relaxed," he said.

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With the weather warming up and hopefully drier days on the way, there are more snakes on the move and McKenzie said they may find themselves in homes.

He urged anyone who finds a snake inside their home to call a snake catcher and not to try and remove it themselves.

"If it's inside your house, don't try and catch it that's how people get bitten," he said.