MediSecure hack Cyberattack on prescription service affects 13 million Australians

pWere sorry this feature is currently unavailable Were working to restore it Please try again laterppAdd articles to your saved list and come back to them any timeppAlmost 13 million Australians had personal and healthrelated data stolen in the MediSecure cyberattack earlier this year making the hack one of the nations largestppThe Melbournebased online prescription service company said it was the victim of a ransomware data breach in May A week later a hacker claiming to possess 65 terabytes of data put at least some of the information up for sale on a Russian hacking forumppMediSecure was hit by a cyberattack earlier this yearCredit Elise AmendolappMediSecure entered voluntary administration in June and on Thursday its administrators confirmed 129 million Australians who used the prescription service between March 2019 and November 2023 had data stolen by a malicious thirdparty actorppBut the company said it wasnt able to identify who was affected by the breach because of the costs involved in analysing the datappThis made it not practicable to specifically identify all individuals and their information impacted by the incident without incurring substantial cost that MediSecure was not in a financial position to meet the administrators FTI Consulting said in a statementppThe stolen data included names home addresses phone numbers Medicare card numbers and limited health information the statement saidppThe company is reviewing a subset of personal information that has been exposed on the dark web to identify and notify those affectedppThe federal government was not aware of publication of the full data set the governments national cyber security coordinator Lieutenant General Michelle McGuinness said on XppNo one should go looking for or access stolen sensitive or personal information from the dark web McGuinness said on Thursday This activity only feeds the business model of cyber criminals and can be a criminal offenceppI understand many Australians will be concerned about the scale of this breach I encourage everyone whether impacted in this incident or not to be alert to being targeted in scamsppThe national prescription delivery service eRx was not affected by this cyber incident the government confirmedppImportantly there continues to be no impact to the current national prescription delivery service and people should keep accessing their medications and filling their prescriptions McGuinness saidppThe incident follows cyberattacks on Optus and Medibank in 2022 with each affecting about 10 million peopleppWith AAPppCopyright 2024p