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Russian hackers medibank found, Optus medibank hacker caught

 

There will be more data leaks from Medibank being hacked.

Australia's most powerful "cyberweapon" is on the lookout for criminals.

The hacking of customer information held by Medibank, Australia's largest health insurer, was carried out by a Russian network.

"We think the people who did it were in Russia," Reece Kershaw, head of the Australian Federal Police, told reporters in Canberra on Friday.

"Our information points to a loosely connected group of cyber criminals who are likely behind major hacks in countries around the world."

He said the crimes could hurt big Australian business and affect many people in Australia.

"This cyber attack was a terrible thing to do to Australia, and it deserves a response befitting how bad and far-reaching this crime has been impacted."

Kershaw said Russian law enforcement would be speaking about the people involved, who are known but have not been named publicly.

Russian hackers medibank found, Optus medibank hacker caught
Medibank has warned that hackers will steal more customer information and put it on the "dark web."

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters earlier that he was "disgusted" by the people who did this crime. He then gave permission to the head of the AFP to share the information.

After being told that the toughest "cyber guns" in Australia were coming after them, the hackers turned their noses up at the government and put more sensitive information about customers' medical records on the dark web overnight.

After a data dump on Thursday called "abortions.csv," the ransomware group put a file called "Boozy.csv" on the dark web. This file seems to have information about alcohol problems.

"You say it's disgusting (woof-woof) that we publish some data," they wrote in a blog post seen by the AAP on Friday.

"But we warned you. We always do what we say, so if we don't get a ransom, we should post this information because no one will believe us in the future."

The group said on Thursday that it had asked for $US1 (almost $A15 million) from each of the 9.7 million Medibank customers who had been affected.

David Koczkar, the CEO of Medibank, said that he thought the "disgraceful" release of customer information would happen every day.

"It's clear that the criminal likes being famous," he said.

"The criminal's constant use of this method is meant to make people feel bad and hurt them. There are real people behind this data, and misusing it is disgusting and could make them less likely to go to the doctor.

Putting cyber guns on the case

Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil said she understood how painful it was for those who were hurt.

"A lot of work has been done to try to stop harm from happening as a result of this and to help the people who were hurt by this terrible crime," she told Nine's Today Show.

People think that the hackers are using medical reference codes to sort through the data they stole to make files on specific health issues.

O'Neil said that the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the Australian Signals Directorate were the federal government's "cyber guns" and were working hard to stop the hackers.

The minister said that Australian businesses need to stop "sleeping" on cybersecurity threats.

In the first group of files that were released on Wednesday, there were names, birthdates, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, information about health claims, Medicare numbers for Medibank's ahm customers, and passport numbers for clients who were international students.

After hacking into Medibank's system last month, the group stole personal information and details about almost 500,000 health claims.

No credit card or bank account information was taken.

Medibank has made its website a one-stop shop for mental health and other support services. Affected customers can use this website to get help.

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