The Government of Australia announces a reinforcement of its intelligence services after a massive hack

November 12 () –

Australian Home Secretary Clare O’Neil has announced the start of a joint Australian Police (AFP) and Australian Foreign Signals Agency (ASD) operation to target cybercriminals after Friday’s massive hack of medical records.

The operation will collect intelligence and identify the leaders, networks and infrastructure in order to disrupt and stop their operations, regardless of where they are in the world, as detailed by the Ministry of the Interior in a statement.

“This new joint operation means that the AFP and the ASD have full power to work together to stop these cyber breaches before they start. If a cyber data breach occurs, we will go after the cyber criminals and disrupt their networks,” O’ said. Neil on the social network Twitter.

“We all have a role to play in preventing and protecting ourselves from cybercriminals (…) We have a message for all cybercriminals: Australia is fighting back,” he added.

The AFP reported on Friday that Russian hackers were behind a massive cyber attack on Australia’s largest health insurer, Medibank, thus stealing data from some 9.7 million customers.

The data began to appear on the insurer’s website after Medibank refused to pay a ransom to hackers, as detailed by the Australian Police in a statement.

After the first inquiries by the Intelligence services, it was revealed that the origin of the hackers was Russian, although up to now no further details have been obtained.