Hackers say they ’ve obtained data from an Australian health indemnity company and have threatened to let go the individual aesculapian information of high - profile Australians if a ransom is n’t paid , allot to a new report from theSydney Morning Herald .
The strange hacker claim to have 200 GiB of data point from Medibank , a private health insurer in Australia that has close to 3.9 million customer in a country of just 25 million people . The hacker may also have access to customer credit card numbers , accord to the Herald .
And while the threatening message ship to Medibank is in broken English , it ’s vindicated the hackers believe threat about Australians in the public centre are the best way to control a ransom is pay off . The message to Medibank , which also owns the health insurance policy brand AHM , specifically includes terror to release private medial information about politician , actors , bloggers , and LGBT activist :
Medibank signage sits on top of the Medibank building on 7 May 2025 in Melbourne, Australia.Photo: Scott Barbour (Getty Images)
We offer to start negotiations in another typeface we will start realizing our ideas like 1 . Selling your Database to third parties 2 . But before this we will take 1k most media persons from yourdatabase ( criteria is : most following , politicians , player , blogger , LGBT activists , drug habit-forming the great unwashed , etc ) Also we ’ve found people with very interesting diagnoses . And we ’ll email them their information .
While the full term “ most followers ” could have a few unlike meanings , it belike relates to the number of people who come high - profile Australians on social media platforms like Twitter , Instagram , and Facebook . Medibank has not made public how much money the cyber-terrorist have asked for .
Curiously , Medibank reported a “ cyber incident ” on October 13 , but said at the clip there was no evidence that any sensitive client data had been compromise . One Twitter user note at the clip that AHM was usingAdobe Experience Manager , speculating that it could ’ve been a path for hackers to get sensitive data , though that has n’t been reported in Australia , let alone confirmed .
Medibank did not respond to a request for comment other Wednesday ET but posted a message to shareholders explaining that the hackers had made contact and the ship’s company had notified the Australian Cyber Security Center .
“ I justify and understand this latest distressing update will concern our customer . We have always said that we will prioritize respond to this matter as transparently as possible , ” Medibank CEO David Koczka enounce in the statement .
“ Our squad has been working around the clock since we first learn the strange activity on our systems , and we will not stop doing that now . We will extend to take decisive natural process to protect Medibank client , our people and other stakeholders , ” Koczka continued .
Australia has a hybrid wellness guardianship arrangement where every resident physician is covered by Medicare , but people can still grease one’s palms private wellness insurance for memory access to thing like secret hospital , vision , and dental reporting .
Australia , despite being a wealthy res publica , has one of the worst course records for breaches of individual data online in recent days . Just last month , Optus , the country ’s second largest telecom , put up a breach when it was found to be stack away sensitive customer information like machine driver ’s licenses on apublicly visible API .
Medibank will be far from the last cyber breach you say about from down under in the coming years as Australia tries to play catch up with the rest of the mankind on cybersecurity .
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