Australia sanctions Russian entity, individuals over Medibank cyberattack

Australia has imposed sanctions on a Russian entity and five individuals over their alleged involvement in stealing the personal information of millions of customers of a private health insurance company in a major cyberattack in 2022.

In a joint statement with Defence Minister Richard Marles and Home Minister Tony Burke on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the attack affected millions of Medibank’s customers whose personal and sensitive medical information was stolen.

Canberra imposed sanctions on ZServers, and five Russians, including the entity owner Aleksandr Bolshakov, and employees Aleksandr Mishin, Ilya Sidorov, Dmitriy Bolshakov, and Igor Odintsov.

The Russian citizens were accused of stealing sensitive information of some 9.7 million customers of Medibank health insurance company and leaking them on the dark web.

"This is the first time that Australia has imposed cyber sanctions on an entity and the first time Australia has imposed sanctions on those providing the network infrastructure and services that make cyberattacks like this possible," it said in the statement.

Under new sanctions, the government makes it a criminal offence to provide assets to ZServers or the five sanctioned individuals or to use or deal with their assets, with penalties of up to 10 years imprisonment or heavy fines.

The sanctions also ban individuals from entering Australia.

Last year, Australia also imposed sanctions on a Russian citizen Aleksandr Gennadie vich Ermakov over his alleged involvement in Medibank health insurance company cyberattack.