The latest cyber attack has targeted health insurance provider Medibank Group, which includes AHM and international student health coverage and has more than 3.9 million customers in its databases. Around 200GB of data has allegedly been stolen, including customers’ details and medical information.
Per the ABC, Medibank’s systems were targeted by hackers sometime last week. The health insurer was then contacted by the hackers on Wednesday after it discovered the breach on October 12. The company immediately reported it to the Australian Federal Police and halted trading on the ASX share market.
Medibank announced on Thursday that customers who have been affected by the cyber attack are currently being contacted.. It’s believed that the hacker has accessed information including customers’ names, addresses, dates of birth, Medicare numbers and phone numbers.
Data relating to insurance claims has also allegedly been taken which includes the location of medical services accessed by customers and codes relating to diagnosis and procedures.
Medibank released an update about the incident on Wednesday evening. It confirmed the group told the company it wants to “negotiate regarding their alleged removal of customer data”.
Cyber incident update: Today we’ve received messages regarding the alleged removal of customer data. We’re sorry.
— Medibank (@medibank) October 19, 2022
It’s still early days but it’s been described as a ransomware hack — which uses software to encrypt information and hold it for ransom — but Medibank hasn’t found any traces of that software in its systems.
Medibank’s CEO David Koczkar apologised to customers in a statement and said the company’s teams are still investigating the breach.
“I apologise and understand this latest distressing update will concern our customers,” he said.
“We have always said that we will prioritise responding to this matter as transparently as possible. Our team has been working around the clock since we first discovered the unusual activity on our systems, and we will not stop doing that now.
“We will continue to take decisive action to protect Medibank customers, our people and other stakeholders.”
Medibank will share more details as it works with the Australian Cyber Security Agency and the Australian Signals Directorate in its continued investigations on the cyber attack. You can keep across all of the health insurer’s updates over on the Medibank website.
