11/11/2022
RawNews1st – On October 13 one of Australia’s largest medical insurers, Medibank, announced it had suffered a cyberattack – one which has resulted in the breached personal details of 9.7 million customers in Australia. We now know the hackers, who are almost certainly Russian, demanded a ransom of US$9.7 million (about A$15 million) – or else they would leak the data on the dark web.
It’s believed the hackers are linked to the notorious REvil cyber gang which, according to Russian sources, was allegedly dismantled and arrested earlier this year.
The Medibank breach consists of an alleged 200GB of data that contain personally identifiable information such as names, dates of birth, addresses, phone numbers, Medicare numbers, credit card details, and ID documents.
Importantly, it also contains sensitive personal information about medical diagnoses and procedures covered by Medibank and ahm health insurance.
Medibank did not have a cyber insurance plan, and so decided it would not pay the ransom. This choice is consistent with Australian government recommendations.
The deadline to pay was around midnight on Tuesday. With no ransom received, the hackers kept their promise and the first batch of data was released in the early hours of Wednesday, November 9.
This breach comes with clear risks, and a lot of people will understandably be concerned. Here’s what to know if your data have been exposed, or is exposed in the coming days.
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