Hackers demand $10 mn for stolen Australian health records
Hackers on Thursday demanded US$10 million to stop leaking highly sensitive records stolen from a major Australian healthcare company, as they uploaded yet more intimate details about customers.
Medibank, Australia's largest private health insurer, confirmed this week that hackers had accessed the information of 9.7 million current and former clients, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
The hackers on Thursday uploaded a second batch of files to a dark web forum, with more sensitive details about hundreds of Medibank customers.
The first leaks appear to have been selected to cause maximum harm: targeting those who received treatment related to drug abuse, sexually transmitted infections or pregnancy terminations.
"Added one more file abortions.csv," the anonymous hackers wrote on the forum, before detailing their ransom threat.
"Society ask us about ransom, it's 10 million USD. We can make discount... $1 = 1 customer."
Medibank has repeatedly refused to pay the ransom.
- 'Profit and greed' -
The Medibank hack -- and an earlier data breach impacting nine million customers at telecom company Optus -- has raised questions about Australia's ability to repel cyber criminals.
Dennis Desmond, a former FBI agent and US Defense Intelligence Agency officer, said Australia was no worse "than any other high-value target or Western country".
"It's very unfortunate, but I don't think Australia is any more vulnerable than any other Western developed nation," he told AFP.
Desmond said profit-driven hackers were unlikely to single out a specific country -- and were typically more interested in targeting companies holding valuable data.
"It's the data types that are of the most interest to these hackers," he said.
"Th
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