The hackers leaking stolen Australian health records yesterday appeared to end their extortion attempt by dumping a final batch of data online and saying: “Case closed.”
The hackers last month demanded health insurer Medibank pay US$9.7 million to keep the records off the Internet or US$1 for each of the company’s affected customers, which included Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
Medibank refused to pay at the urging of the federal government, which had considered making it illegal for hacked companies to hand over ransoms.
Photo: AFP
Hackers yesterday said that they had posted the last of the data online, deliberately coinciding with International Computer Security Day.
“Happy Cyber Security Day,” they wrote. “Added folder full. Case closed.”
The first batches of stolen data started appearing on a forum on Nov. 9 in curated posts highlighting medical records about drug addiction, pregnancy terminations and sexually transmitted infections.
Medibank yesterday said the latest post was “incomplete and hard to understand” — an indication that the hackers might have lost interest after a ransom was taken off the table.
“While our investigation continues, there are currently no signs that financial or banking data has been taken,” Medibank said in a statement.
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw last month said that the hackers were believed to be a group of “loosely affiliated cybercriminals” based in Russia.
Cybersecurity analysts have suggested they could be linked to Russian hacker group Revil.
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