Australian Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil has announced the launch of a joint Australian Police (AFP) and Austalia’s External Signals Agency (ASD) operation to target cybercriminals following Friday’s massive hacking of medical records.
The operation will gather intelligence and identify ringleaders, networks and infrastructure in order to disrupt and stop their operations, regardless of where they are located in the world, the Home Office said in a statement.
«This new joint operation means that the AFP and DSA have full powers to work together to stop these cyber breaches before they start. If a cyber data breach occurs, we will pursue the cyber criminals and disrupt their networks,» O’Neil has expressed on the social network Twitter.
«We all have a role to play in preventing and protecting ourselves from cyber criminals (…) We have a message for all cyber criminals: Australia is fighting back,» he added.
AFP reported Friday that Russian hackers were behind a massive cyberattack on Australia’s largest health insurer, Medibank, stealing data from some 9.7 million customers.
The data began appearing on the insurer’s website after Medibank refused to pay a ransom to the hackers, Australian police said in a statement.
After initial inquiries by the intelligence services, it became known that the hackers’ origin was Russian, although no further details have been gathered so far.
