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Hackers who seized thousands of Aussies’ private data in massive Medibank hack demand RANSOM – as ministers warn cyber-attack is ‘significant’
- Australian private health insurer Medibank has been the victim of a cyber attack
- The company has the personal information of more than 3.9 million customers
- CEO David Koczkar said the insurer was trying to understand the scope of the breach
- A group claiming to be behind the attack contacted Medibank on Wednesday
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Hackers claiming to be behind a cyber attack on one of Australia’s largest health insurers, Medibank Private, have threatened to release customers’ personal information.
Medibank said in a statement Wednesday that a group had contacted them to begin ransom negotiations over the allegedly stolen data.
“This is a new development and Medibank understands that this news concerns customers and protecting their data remains our priority,” the company said.
“We are working urgently to determine whether the allegation is true, although we are addressing the matter seriously based on our ongoing forensics investigation.”
Breaking English reports from the hacking group allege that 200 gigabytes of sensitive information, including health records, have been stolen from Medibank, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
The group said as a “warning shot” it would contact the insurer’s 1,000 most prominent customers, including “politicians, actors and activists” using their own personal information.
Private health insurer Medibank revealed last week it was the victim of a cyber attack and now the hacking group has made demands
A statement from the office of Cybersecurity Minister Clare O’Neil on Wednesday evening said the nature of the breach is still under investigation.
‘A major cybersecurity incident has occurred within Medibank. The facts are still being established,” she said.
Ms O’Neill said she has held talks with the CEO of Medibank, the Australian Signals Directorate and the Federal Police.
Medibank has more than 3.9 million customers.
The new development has resulted in stocks being suspended from trading for the remainder of the week.
Medibank announced last week that it had been the victim of a massive cyber attack and had shut down some IT systems to understand the extent of the breach.
In a separate letter to the Australian Stock Exchange last Thursday, Medibank said it had detected unusual activity on its network the previous day.
“At this stage, there is no evidence that sensitive data, including customer data, has been accessed,” the company said at the time.
CEO David Koczkar apologized for the incident, acknowledging “this news may worry people.”
It follows the country’s largest-ever cyber breach, when the personal data of up to 10 million Optus customers was recently exposed to hackers.
Telstra also revealed a data breach this month in which 30,000 current and former employees posted their names and emails online.
Hackers claiming to be behind 200GB of sensitive customer data from Medibank want to negotiate (stock image)
Medibank said last week it took immediate steps to “contain the incident” and engaged expert cybersecurity firms to work on the breach.
The steps include taking some of its customer-facing computer systems offline
Koczkar said taking systems offline “would reduce the likelihood of damage to systems or loss of data,” but that access to healthcare providers and coverage were not affected.
He said the company was still trying to understand the exact nature of the breach.
“We recognize the great responsibility we have towards the people who rely on us to care for their health and well-being and whose data we have,” Koczkar said.
“We are working around the clock to understand the full nature of the incident, and any additional impact this incident may have on our customers, our people and our wider ecosystem.”