Hackers scrape more customer data from Australian insurance company Medibank

The latest release on the dark web follows incremental uploads, including of data on customers’ mental health and alcohol consumption, that began after Medibank said on November 7 that it would not pay a ransom.

“The raw data we have analyzed so far is incomplete and difficult to understand,” said CEO David Kojkar. And although the media reported that this is a “case closed” signal, our work is far from over.

On Thursday, the media reported that a blog post, which cyber experts believe hackers use, contains a new message: “Happy Cybersecurity Day!!! Full folder added. Case closed.” It also contains a file containing several zip files over 5GB in size.

Reuters has not verified the contents of the latest files uploaded to the dark web, a part of the World Wide Web that can only be accessed using special software. Medibank did not immediately respond to a question from Reuters about whether it believed all the stolen data had now been released.

Australian Federal Police said last month that hackers in Russia were behind the Medibank cyberattack, which compromised the data of nearly 10 million current and former customers. Medicare disclosed the breach on Oct. 13.

In its latest update, Medibank said there are currently no indications that any banking information has been stolen. The company added that the personal data the hackers gained access to was insufficient to enable financial fraud.

Medibank said in a statement that six zip files were uploaded into a folder titled “Full,” which contained raw data believed to be stolen.

Australia is grappling with the recent increase in cyberattacks. At least eight companies, including telco Optus, which is owned by Singapore Telecom, have reported breaches since September.

Technology experts said Australia has become quite a target for hackers because a skills shortage leaves too few cybersecurity staff overworked to stop the attacks.