Medibank hackers post mental health data on dark web

The Russian hacker group behind the leak of Medibank customer data has now posted claims for mental health treatment on the dark web. On Sunday night, a file was posted on the group's dark web blog titled “psychos”, containing hundreds of claims from policyholders that appear to be related to mental health treatment.

The group also said that had they been paid the ransom, they would not have not have posted the data.

“We never lies [sic] – it doesn’t make sense, if we lie to somebody – nobody will treat us as a serious business side [sic].”

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“In a hope something meaningful happened [sic] on Wednesday”, the group said it would not publish another portion of the data until Friday.

Medibank is due to hold its annual general meeting on Wednesday.

Also Read |Medibank data leak: Russia responds after Australian police blame hackers based in Russia

A permanent joint standing operation comprising 100 members of the Australian federal police and Australian Signals Directorate to target hacker groups will be formed in the country to handle such attacks.

“They will show up to work every day with the goal of bringing down these gangs and thugs,” the home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, said Saturday.

“This is the formalisation of a partnership, a standing body in the Australian government, which will day in, day out, hunt down the scumbags who are responsible for these malicious crimes against innocent people.”

The Australian federal police commissioner, Reece Kershaw, had earlier called on Russia to cooperate with law enforcement investigations.

The Russian embassy in Canberra said, “Fighting cybercrime that adversely affects people’s lives and damages businesses demands a cooperative, non-politicized and responsible approach from all members of the world community.”

"For some reason, this announcement was made before the AFP even contacted the Russian side through the existing professional channels of communication," read the statement.

"We encourage the AFP to duly get in touch with the respective Russian law enforcement agencies."

O’Neil has also said the government was thinking about making paying ransoms illegal as part of the government’s overall cyber strategy. She said Medibank made the right call in not paying the ransom.

“I have never seen people that lack a moral code so clearly than the hackers who are releasing data about Australians online,” she told ABC’s Insiders program. “The idea we will trust these people to delete data, that they have taken off and may have copied a million times is, frankly, silly.”

(With inputs from agencies)