Millions of personal data leaked online after Medibank refuses to pay ransom

Personal data of millions of customers of Australia’s largest health insurer Medibank was leaked online on Wednesday, a month after it was stolen by hackers.

The data of around 9.7 million Medibank customers was posted online after the insurer refused to pay a ransom.

Among the customers of Medibank is Prime Minister Anthony Albanese who expressed concern that his personal information, among those leaked, might also be available to the public.

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"This is really tough for people," he said on Wednesday, according to BBC.

Data relating to medical procedure history, along with names, addresses, birthdates and government ID numbers, were said to have been leaked online.

Around midnight, a ransomware group, whose identity is unknown, posted on its darknet blog that “data will be published in 24 hours”.

“P.S. I recommend to sell medibank stocks.” More data will be posted soon, the blogpost says.

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According to the Guardian, the threat was posted on a site linked to the REvil Russian ransomware group.

The site was taken down in October last year, but it is believed to have emerged again in April this year.

Medibank chief executive David Koczar in a statement termed the data leak as a “distressing development”, but has remained silent on whether the same group was involved in the breach with which the company was communicating for ransom.

“Customers should remain vigilant. We knew the publication of data online by the criminal could be a possibility, but the criminal’s threat is still a distressing development for our customers,” he said.

The company, however, has assured that no credit card or banking details were accessed in the leak.

(With inputs from agencies)

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