The personal information of 9.7m Australians was stolen from the country’s largest health insurer, Medibank, in late 2022. Sensitive documents, including abortion records, were then posted online.
Cyber sanctions - the first of their kind in Australia - include financial penalties and a travel ban for Aleksandr Ermakov. Little has been made public about Mr Ermakov, but Australian intelligence authorities say he is part of the infamous Russian cyber-crime gang REvil - which has been linked to attacks across Europe, the US and UK.
Announcing the measures on Tuesday, Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil described the Medibank hack as “the single most devastating cyber-attack we have experienced as a nation. Literally millions of people having personal data about themselves, their family members, taken from them and cruelly placed online for others to see,” she said. These people are cowards and scumbags… we’ll unveil who you are and we’ll make sure you’re accountable."
The cyber criminals had stolen login details which granted them access to all of Medibank’s customer data - including the medical records of everyone from athletes and media figures to the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. They began posting the data online after the insurer - with the government’s support - refused to pay a ransom.
They first released a set of files named “good-list” and “naughty-list” which contained, among other things, people’s health claims data - including records of treatment for mental health or addiction - as well as names, addresses, birthdates, and government ID numbers. Soon after they posted: “added one more file abortions.csv…”, about some customer’s end of pregnancy procedures.
Blimey … that’s an appalling data breach, affecting 40% of Australians … 
