Politics

Police target Russian hackers for theft of medical data in Australia

Sydney, Australia, Nov 11 (EFE).- Australian Police pointed Friday to a group of hackers from Russia as responsible for the theft of millions of medical data in mid-October against private insurer Medibank, the largest in the country.

“We believe that those responsible for the (security) breach are in Russia,” Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw told a news conference in Canberra, without revealing the name of the hacking group.

Kershaw said Australian authorities will contact Russian authorities, which are part of Interpol, to request the arrest of those responsible for the crime.

The police statement comes a day after these cybercriminals demanded a payment of $ 10 million to prevent them from further disclosing sensitive medical data of some 9.7 million Medibank clients and ex-clients.

On Wednesday, hackers released some 300 records on the deep web containing sensitive information, such as those related to miscarriages and induced abortions, and on Friday they added other files containing information on alcohol treatment.

“The continued publication of this stolen data on the deep web is shameful. Unfortunately, we expect the criminal to continue to release stolen customer data every day,” Medibank CEO David Koczkar said in a statement.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Friday he feels “disgusted by the authors of this criminal act,” announcing he has given green light to the police to provide information on the authors of the theft of medical data.

To date, Medibank, which refuses to pay the extortion, has confirmed that, in addition to medical data, they have stolen almost 500,000 claims for expense reimbursement, although they do not include bank or credit card details. EFE

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