Australian cops know the NAMES of the Russians who attacked Medibank and are sharing information about abortions, mental health and drug problems – and call for help from Vladimir Putin’s regime

  • Federal Police confirm Russian hacking group are behind the Medibank breach
  • AFP Commissioner says Moscow have been contacted about the attackers
  • ‘We will be holding talks with Russian law enforcement about these individuals’
  • PM Anthony Albanese said Russian attackers  ‘should be held accountable’ 

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The Australian Federal Police has confirmed a Russian hacking group is behind the Medibank cyberattack and called on Vladimir Putin’s government to take ‘responsibility and accountability’.

During a press conference on Friday, AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw confirmed a Russian group were behind the attack and hinted that officials even know the names of the offenders.

The attack – which affected the country’s biggest private health insurer – comes amid tense diplomatic relations between Australia and Russia, with the government providing military assistance to Ukraine. 

Mr Kershaw said: ‘We believe that those responsible for the breach are in Russia.

‘We believe we know, which individuals are responsible but I will not be naming them.

‘What I will say is that we will be holding talks with Russian law enforcement about these individuals.’

AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw (pictured) confirmed a Russian hacking group are behind the Medibank cyberattack and called on Vladimir Putin's government to take 'responsibility and accountability'

AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw (pictured) confirmed a Russian hacking group are behind the Medibank cyberattack and called on Vladimir Putin’s government to take ‘responsibility and accountability’

The AFP confirmed officials had made direct contact with Moscow over the perpetrators of the attack and said 'we will be holding talks with Russian law enforcement about these individuals'

The AFP confirmed officials had made direct contact with Moscow over the perpetrators of the attack and said ‘we will be holding talks with Russian law enforcement about these individuals’

Mr Kershaw: 'To the criminals, we know who you are, and moreover, the AFP has some significant runs on the scoreboard when it comes to bringing overseas offenders back to Australia to face the justice system'

Mr Kershaw: ‘To the criminals, we know who you are, and moreover, the AFP has some significant runs on the scoreboard when it comes to bringing overseas offenders back to Australia to face the justice system’

He said the group of ‘loosely affiliated cyber criminals’ are also responsible for past ‘significant’ data breaches across the world.

The AFP confirmed officials had made direct contact with Moscow over the perpetrators of the attack.

‘We will be holding talks with Russian law enforcement about these individuals,’ he said.

Mr Kershaw also noted Russia benefits from the intelligence-sharing through Interpol, and said ‘with that comes responsibilities and accountability’.

Mr Kershaw wrapped up the press conference with a defiant statement to cybercriminals.

‘To the criminals, we know who you are, and moreover, the AFP has some significant runs on the scoreboard when it comes to bringing overseas offenders back to Australia to face the justice system,’ he said.

‘To the media and social media, I know you will do the right thing and continue to assist us in protecting the community by not aiding these criminals by posting or publishing this sensitive information.

‘This is a time for all Australians – the community, business and law enforcement – to stand together and refuse to give these criminals the notoriety they seek’.

Friday’s press conference comes hours after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese ordered the disclosure. 

Mr Albanese said: ‘I am disgusted by the perpetrators of this criminal act and I’ve certainly authorised the AFP Commissioner later today to disclose where these attacks are coming from.

‘We know where they’re coming from, we know who is responsible and we say that they should be held to account.’

At a press conference in Sydney after a Remembrance Day ceremony (above), Mr Albanese confirmed the new information on the security hack that has seen Australians' sensitive information exposed online, confirming the AFP 'know who is responsible'

At a press conference in Sydney after a Remembrance Day ceremony (above), Mr Albanese confirmed the new information on the security hack that has seen Australians’ sensitive information exposed online, confirming the AFP ‘know who is responsible’

The hackers had demanded a ransom to stop them from releasing the data, but Medibank earlier this week said it would not pay it. Pictured is a stock image of a hacker

The hackers had demanded a ransom to stop them from releasing the data, but Medibank earlier this week said it would not pay it. Pictured is a stock image of a hacker

Pictured is important advice for people affected by the Medibank and AHM data hacks

Pictured is important advice for people affected by the Medibank and AHM data hacks

Mr Albanese’s revelation came as those behind the Medibank data theft dumped a fresh file about customers with alcohol and mental health problems. 

The government warned the ‘smartest and toughest’ people in Australia are coming after them. 

The ransomware group claimed they had released more sensitive details of customers’ medical records on the dark web.

‘Added one more file Boozy.csv …,’ they wrote in a blog update in the early hours of Friday.

The file, which appears to be related to mental health and alcohol issues, comes after a data dump on Thursday named ‘abortions.csv’.

‘You telling that is disgusting (woof-woof), that we publish some data,’ they wrote on Friday in the blog seen by AAP.

‘But we warned you. we always keep our word, if we wouldn’t receive a ransom – we should post this data, because nobody will believe us in the future.’

The group said on Thursday it had demanded a ransom of $US1 for each of Medibank’s 9.7 million affected customers, for a total of $US9.7 million (almost $15million).

Medibank data hack timeline

October 13: Medibank took the data and policy systems of its budget provider, AHM, and its international student division offline after a ‘cyber incident’  

October 14: Medibank said it had restored its systems and said it was ‘still responding’ to the incident

October 19: The company disclosed to the Australian stock exchange that hackers had contacted it to ‘negotiate’ over 200 gigabytes of customer data stolen from Medibank’s systems 

October 26: Medibank confirmed the hackers behind its ‘devastating’ data breach managed to access all of its customers’ private health records 

October 27: It emerged that Medibank faced costs of up to $30million after it was revealed it had no insurance to protect itself from a cyber attack

November 8: The hackers threatened to expose the personal data of millions of Australians unless Medibank paid up within 24 hours. The company refused to pay, saying ‘you just can’t trust a criminal’

November 9: The ransomware group began posting client data stolen from Australia’s largest health insurer on the dark web

November 10: The group release a customer file named ‘abortions.csv’.

November 11: The hackers claim they have released more sensitive details of customers’ medical records, including one file titled Boozy.csv

November 11: Federal Police confirm a Russian hacking group is behind the Medibank cyberattack 

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