Hackers accessed millions of medical records at one of Australia’s largest private health insurers, the company said yesterday, prompting the government to say that the nation’s cybersafeguards were “inadequate.”
Medibank chief executive David Koczkar said that information about each of the company’s 3.9 million policyholders had been compromised.
“Our investigation has now established that this criminal has accessed all our private health insurance customers’ personal data and significant amounts of their health claims data,” he said in a statement to the Australian securities exchange. “This is a terrible crime. This is a crime designed to cause maximum harm to the most vulnerable members of our community.”
Photo: AP
The cyberattack was revealed last week, but it was not known until now how many people were affected.
The hackers have previously threatened to leak the data, starting with 1,000 famous Australians, unless Medibank pays a ransom.
Medibank said that it was not insured against cyberattacks, estimating that the hack could cost the company as much as A$35 million (US$22.6 million).
The Medibank hack followed an attack on telecom Optus last month that exposed the personal information of about 9 million Australians — almost one-third of the population.
The Optus attack was one of the largest data breaches in Australian history.
Australian Attorney General Mark Dreyfus has previously accused companies of stockpiling sensitive customer data they did not need.
Firms face fines of A$2.2 million for failing to protect customer data.
Dreyfus last week said these fines would be ratcheted up to A$50 million.
“Unfortunately, significant privacy breaches in recent weeks have shown existing safeguards are inadequate,” he said. “It’s not enough for a penalty for a major data breach to be seen as the cost of doing business.”
Australian Minister for Home Affairs Clare O’Neil on Tuesday said that the fallout from the Medibank hack was “potentially irreparable.”
“One of the reasons why the government is so worried about this is because of the nature of the data,” O’Neil told parliament. “When it comes to the personal health information of Australians, the damage here is potentially irreparable.”
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