- Academy to host first overseas ceremony to honor young filmmakers
- No doctor necessary: US okays nasal spray flu vaccine for self-use
- Gurbaz, birthday boy Rashid lead Afghanistan to 177-run rout of South Africa
- Former delivery man Baldwin leads star names at PGA Championship
- Trump shooting: Secret Service admits complacency
- Can an ambitious Milei make Argentina an AI giant?
- Haiti, its suffering growing, in 'race against time': UN expert
- Ibrahim Aqil, the Hezbollah elite unit commander wanted by the US
- Chinese forward Cui signs NBA contract with Brooklyn Nets
- US Fed dissenter calls for 'measured' pace of rate cuts
- Guardiola tells players to lead change over workload as Kompany demands cap on games
- Norway limits wild salmon fishing as stocks hit new lows
- Top Hezbollah commander killed in Israeli strike on Beirut
- Rotterdam fatal knife attacker suspected of 'terrorist motive'
- First early votes cast in knife-edge US presidential election
- Top-ranked Swiatek out of Beijing due to 'personal matters'
- Hard-right Reform UK looks to the future after vote success
- Embiid agrees to NBA contract extension with 76ers
- Joshua aims to complete road to redemption in Dubois bout
- World champion Bagnaia sets pace with lap record at Misano
- Biden says 'working' to get people back to homes on Israel-Lebanon border
- Pope criticises Argentina's crackdown on protesters
- Court limits screenings of videos in France mass rape case
- Gurbaz century takes Afghanistan to 311-4 in 2nd ODI
- Central banks face 'difficult balancing act': IMF chief
- McLaren's Norris sets Singapore pace as struggling Verstappen 15th
- Guardiola tells players to lead change over workload fears
- Paris Olympics sports equipment moves to new homes
- 'Happy' Kinghorn relishing life at Toulouse
- Norris sets Singapore pace as Verstappen only 15th
- 8 dead in Israeli strike, source says Hezbollah commander killed
- Germany to bid to host women's Euro 2029
- Portugal brings deadly forest fires under control
- Postecoglou defends Solanke after slow start to Spurs career
- US nuclear plant Three Mile Island to reopen to power Microsoft
- Arteta urges Arsenal to take next step in Man City showdown
- Stock markets fall after Fed-fuelled rally
- Top Hezbollah commander 'killed' in Israel strike
- Poland charges Russian over attack on Navalny ally: prosecutors
- Man City have rest 'advantage' in Arsenal showdown: Guardiola
- Maresca has 'no doubt' in Jackson as Chelsea's number nine
- EU chief announces 35 bn euro loan plan for Ukraine before winter
- From TikTok to Hollywood, the irresistible rise of Italy's Khaby Lame
- Verstappen punished for swearing in Singapore press conference
- Sri Lanka lead by 202 in first New Zealand Test
- Brook 'not too fussed' by England's batting in heavy Australia loss
- India's Ashwin 'happy' to embrace pressure
- A modern 'Trojan Horse': two days of mayhem in Lebanon
- Third of Burundi mpox cases in children under five: UN
- Man Utd appoint Foster + Partners to develop Old Trafford 'masterplan'
Hackers demand $10 mn for stolen Australian health records
Hackers on Thursday demanded US$10 million to stop leaking highly sensitive records stolen from a major Australian healthcare company, as they uploaded yet more intimate details about customers.
Medibank, Australia's largest private health insurer, confirmed this week that hackers had accessed the information of 9.7 million current and former clients, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
The hackers on Thursday uploaded a second batch of files to a dark web forum, with more sensitive details about hundreds of Medibank customers.
The first leaks appear to have been selected to cause maximum harm: targeting those who received treatment related to drug abuse, sexually transmitted infections or pregnancy terminations.
"Added one more file abortions.csv," the anonymous hackers wrote on the forum, before detailing their ransom threat.
"Society ask us about ransom, it's 10 million USD. We can make discount... $1 = 1 customer."
Medibank has repeatedly refused to pay the ransom.
- 'Profit and greed' -
The Medibank hack -- and an earlier data breach impacting nine million customers at telecom company Optus -- has raised questions about Australia's ability to repel cyber criminals.
Dennis Desmond, a former FBI agent and US Defense Intelligence Agency officer, said Australia was no worse "than any other high-value target or Western country".
"It's very unfortunate, but I don't think Australia is any more vulnerable than any other Western developed nation," he told AFP.
Desmond said profit-driven hackers were unlikely to single out a specific country -- and were typically more interested in targeting companies holding valuable data.
"It's the data types that are of the most interest to these hackers," he said.
"The healthcare data is a huge target and personally identifiable data is high-value.
"Generally, profit and greed are the number one drivers."
- 'Scummy criminals' -
The Medibank hack is likely to include data on some of the country's most influential and wealthy individuals.
Medibank chief executive David Koczkar condemned the "disgraceful" extortion tactics.
"The weaponisation of people's private information in an effort to extort payment is malicious and it is an attack on the most vulnerable members of our community."
The group behind the attack appears to be pressuring Medibank by hunting for the most potentially damaging personal information within the records.
The first records posted to the dark web forum were separated into "naughty" and "nice" lists.
Some on the "naughty" list had numeric codes that appeared to link them to drug addiction, alcohol abuse and HIV infection.
For example, one record carried an entry that read: "p_diag: F122".
F122 corresponds with "cannabis dependence" under the International Classification of Diseases, published by the World Health Organization.
Names, addresses, passport numbers and birth dates were also included in the data.
Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil has described the hackers as "scummy criminals".
L.Mason--AMWN