Australia on Saturday, November 12 unveiled a new cyber police model in a bid to step up efforts to "bury" criminal syndicates on the internet, following a recent hack that affected millions of Australians.
Australia's largest health insurance company, Medibank Private Ltd, last month was hit by a massive cyberattack, as the country grappled with rising destructive hacking.
At least eight companies, including a telecommunications company owned by Singapore Telecommunications, Optus, Australia's second-largest telecommunications company, have reported abuses since September.
On Saturday, Interior Minister Clare O'Neill said the government had formalized a permanent partnership between the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the Australian Signal Directorate, which intercepted electronic communications from foreign countries, to carry out a "stubborn new police task" on cybercrimes.
O'Neill said about 100 officers would be part of a new partnership between the two federal agencies, which will act as a "co-operation against cybercrime syndicates".
"This task force will be day by day, hunting down the thugs responsible for this evil crime", he said, quoted by Reuters.
The announcement comes after AFP on Friday said Russian-based hackers were behind the attack on Medibank, which scrapped data from about 10 million current and previous subscribers.
Attorney General Mark Dreyfus, speaking with O'Neill in Melbourne, declined to say whether the REvil ransomware group was responsible for the recent cyberattack on Australians.
"I will not comment on such operational issues, but what we know... is a very organized criminal gang located in Russia," said Dreyfus.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese previously said the government was doing everything it could to limit the impact of hacking Medibank and had prepared telephone services for affected customers to seek help from the government and Medibank.
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