Medibank suffered a data breach that compromised 9.7 million current and former customers - an impact with a chilling resemblance to the Optus data breach that occurred less than a month earlier.
The attack vector that facilitated the breach was a set of stolen high-ranking corporate credentials that were sold on a cybercriminal marketplace. Cybercriminals believed to be affiliated with the defunct ransomware gang, REvil, used these credentials to log into Medibank's network and exfiltrate the customer database.
Upon detecting unusual activity within its network, Medibank’s security team promptly located and shut down two backdoors facilitating data transfer during the attack. This likely caused an unexpected disruption to the attack, preventing the cybercriminals from encrypting Medibank's systems - the characteristic final stage of a ransomware attack.
Unfortunately, the attack wasn't disrupted before 200 GB of customer data was stolen.
The cyber criminals demanded a ransom payment of US$10 million to prevent the stolen database from being published on the dark web (a cybercriminal network accessible through a specialised Tor browser).
Medibank denied a ransom payment. In an effort to reverse this decision and extort payment, the cybercriminals have published segments of sensitive customer data on the dark web, promising to publish more if the ransom payment isn't made.
This story is still unfolding.
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