Millions of Australians caught up in major data breach

More bad news for Medibank customers, with millions of Australians’ data compromised

It’s the latest cyber breach to hit the country.

Australia’s biggest health insurer says a hacker has accessed data from 9.7 million customers

But the company is standing firm, refusing to pay a ransom.

In a statement, Medibank’s CEO says it has received advice from cyber-crime experts, who believe there is only a limited chance paying a ransom would ensure the return of our customers’ data and prevent it from being published.

It goes on to say that paying the ransom could have the opposite effect and encourage the criminal to directly extort our customers, and there is a strong chance that paying puts more people in harm’s way by making Australia a bigger target.”

The company is now warning its customers to be vigilant because there are concerns the criminal may leak the data online, or even contact the customers directly.

What data has been compromised?

Medibank has confirmed names, dates of birth, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses for the nearly 10 million current and former customers have been accessed.

However, it does not seem like any primary identity documents have been stolen at this point in time.