Australia imposes sanctions on suspected Russian hacker

By Anadolu staff

ANKARA(AA) - Australia has imposed sanctions on a suspected Russian hacker allegedly involved in stealing personal information of millions of customers of a private health insurance company in a major cyberattack in 2022, local media reported on Tuesday.

The Russian citizen, identified as Aleksandr Gennadievich Ermakov, is accused of stealing sensitive information of some 9.7 million customers of Medibank health insurance company and leaking them on the dark web, according to the Australia Broadcasting Corporation.

"This is the first time an Australian government has identified a cybercriminal and imposed cyber sanctions of this kind and it won't be the last," Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil told reporters.

“Medibank, in my view, was the single most devastating cyberattack we have experienced as a nation,” she added.

O'Neil said investigators, who are working in coordination with cyber authorities in the US and UK, were focused on "a number of Russian cyber gangs" threatening Australia.

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong also announced that the government imposed “counter-terrorism sanctions” against 12 people and three entities linked to Hamas, Hezbollah, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.