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.
