Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / NT Consumer Affairs Deputy Commissioner Rebecca Davey provides advice for victims of the Medibank cyber attack

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NT Consumer Affairs Deputy Commissioner Rebecca Davey provides advice for victims of the Medibank cyber attack · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: There is a concern I think right around the nation,
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: but particularly if you are a Medibank customer. So a
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: major cybersecurity incident occurred at Medibank Private, just weeks after
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  Speaker 1: one third of Australians had their information held to ransom
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  Speaker 1: in the OPTAs Starter breach. Now, as one of Australia's
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  Speaker 1: biggest health insurance providers, Medibank holds information that includes intimate
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  Speaker 1: medical records, making that breach well, I guess even more
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  Speaker 1: serious than the Optus hack in a lot of ways.
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  Speaker 1: Now joining me on the line to give us some
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  Speaker 1: detail about really how we can protect ourselves and our
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  Speaker 1: rights is the Northern Territories Deputy Commissioner for Consumer Affairs,
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  Speaker 1: Rebecca Davy. Good morning to you, Rebecca. Let me try
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: that again. Good morning again, Rebecca.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning Katie. How are you?
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, very well, sorry, bit of a technical issue, operator error,
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: I think you call those ones idea No all good now, Rebecca.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: How concerning is this latest situation with Medibank?
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  Speaker 2: Of course, I think any incident where people's personal information
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  Speaker 2: has been stolen and is now in the hands of
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  Speaker 2: criminals is very concerning. I think, just off the back
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  Speaker 2: of the Optus incident. This one that looks like at
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  Speaker 2: the moment anyway, it's not quite as big as the
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  Speaker 2: optus problem. Yeah, and hopefully a lot less people have
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  Speaker 2: been affected, but it's still very concerning if you're one
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  Speaker 2: of those people.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I would suspect that pretty concerning as well,
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  Speaker 1: given the fact that it, you know, this breach does
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  Speaker 1: contain health information.
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  Speaker 2: That's right. You know, a person's medical information is very private,
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  Speaker 2: and I think most people will be very concerned about
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  Speaker 2: their medical information being in the hands of criminal Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: not just you know, on top of that, your identity,
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  Speaker 2: you know, detailed being stolen, which could be used for
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  Speaker 2: financial crimes as well. So both those things would leave
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  Speaker 2: you feeling very vulnerable.
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  Speaker 1: And Rebecca, is this something that that NT Consumer Affairs
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  Speaker 1: have been contacted about by territorians.
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  Speaker 2: Not really, we're not the first point of call, although
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  Speaker 2: we can certainly take enquiries and we can refer you
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  Speaker 2: to the to the right place.
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  Speaker 1: What are the options for territory instead of listening this
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  Speaker 1: morning who've maybe been contacted by medibank and they're not
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  Speaker 1: really sure what to do or not really sure if
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  Speaker 1: their data has been breached or exactly what's going on.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so maybe Bank released the statement last Thursday saying
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  Speaker 2: that they will be contacting anyone that have been affected
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  Speaker 2: by this. So hopefully if you have been you should
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  Speaker 2: have been contacted by any bank. Although the investigation is ongoing,
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  Speaker 2: the Australian Federal College and Hour involved, so it is
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  Speaker 2: an evolving investigation and certainly if you have any concerns
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  Speaker 2: at all, I would first be making contact with Medibank
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  Speaker 2: and getting some information about whether any of your data
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  Speaker 2: has been stolen. Some other advice we would give to
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  Speaker 2: people is to think about and be very vigilant now
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  Speaker 2: about any online scams, particularly those referencing Medibank Private or
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  Speaker 2: any unusual emails or text messages you might get.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a really good points. Do you know if
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  Speaker 1: there have sort of been any reports of that kind
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  Speaker 1: of thing happening as yet.
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  Speaker 2: I'm not aware of any as yet, but going on
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  Speaker 2: what happened with Optus, within a few days, people were
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  Speaker 2: getting text messages referencing the Optus incident, and so I
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  Speaker 2: would be very wary of that. Will never contact you
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  Speaker 2: via text message, So if you're getting anything suspicious email,
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  Speaker 2: text message, I would just ignore it. I think the
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  Speaker 2: next best thing that anyone can do is hop onto
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  Speaker 2: the Australian Cyber Security Center website. They have some really
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  Speaker 2: good resources on there. In particular, they have one called
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  Speaker 2: have You Been Hacked. It's a tool that will guide
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  Speaker 2: you through a series of scenarios trying to help you
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  Speaker 2: assess if you have been hacked, and it'll give you
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  Speaker 2: advice about what to do next if any of those
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  Speaker 2: scenarios might apply to you.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's I guess it's quite frightening for a
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  Speaker 1: lot of Territorians, a lot of Assies more generally, not
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  Speaker 1: just in terms of Medibank, but also in terms of
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  Speaker 1: what had happened with Optus. And you know, you sort
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  Speaker 1: of you give your details over to certain organizations and
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  Speaker 1: you never expect that you're going to wind up in
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  Speaker 1: this situation.
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  Speaker 2: No, not at all. I mean I myself was caught
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  Speaker 2: up in the Optus one and it at leads you're
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  Speaker 2: feeling very worried, and you suddenly think about all the
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  Speaker 2: different ways you give your personal information out and certainly
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  Speaker 2: when you do that, we often don't think about the
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  Speaker 2: potential risk of that. So I probably just advise people
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  Speaker 2: to to be a little bit more aware of who
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  Speaker 2: you're giving your information to and if there really a
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  Speaker 2: need for them to have that information as well. I
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  Speaker 2: think there's mounting pressure on businesses, especially large corporations, to
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  Speaker 2: do more to protect personal information as a hold, yep,
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  Speaker 2: and you know, we have a right to expect that
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  Speaker 2: it will be protected.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, you spot on, And you know, like we not
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  Speaker 1: only sort of give our information over for various different things,
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  Speaker 1: but you're so right that we expect that it's going
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  Speaker 1: to be protected, and it's really concerning for people then
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  Speaker 1: when that private information is yeah, is breached.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, very concerning, And I think it's something that the
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  Speaker 2: federal goal and it's taken quite seriously. They recently advised
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  Speaker 2: of a couple of different legislative changes that they're proposing,
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  Speaker 2: you know, really as a result of what happened with
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  Speaker 2: Optis and now Medibank. They're introducing a bill to increase
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  Speaker 2: the maximum penalties under the Privacy Act for breaches of
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  Speaker 2: serious or repeated privacy breaches. At the moment, the current
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  Speaker 2: penalty is only two point two million dollars, which you
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  Speaker 2: can imagine to a large corporation like OPTAs is not
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  Speaker 2: much of a deterrent to be putting resources into protecting information.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, that is so very true. And Rebecca, obviously you've
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  Speaker 1: touched on OPTAs, so we've also touched on manibank. Have
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  Speaker 1: there been many territori ins sort of contacting you since
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  Speaker 1: that last OPTUS breach? I know that you said anti
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  Speaker 1: consumer affairs probably isn't the first point of call for
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  Speaker 1: a lot of people. But has there been much, you know,
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  Speaker 1: much of an increase in those calls coming to consumer affairs.
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  Speaker 2: No, we haven't really received too many at all. I
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  Speaker 2: think there's what I will say is that there has
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  Speaker 2: been a lot of information put out there about what
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  Speaker 2: to do in terms of contacting IT office or medibank,
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: hopping onto the Australian Cybersecurity Center, securing a devices, enabling
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: that multi factor authentication. So there's a lot of information
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  Speaker 2: out there for consumers to access and by any means,
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  Speaker 2: if you're a little overwhelmed with all that information out there,
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  Speaker 2: it can be quite overwhelming. There's a number of agencies
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  Speaker 2: that you can go to for various different things, but
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  Speaker 2: if you have any questions, please call us and we
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  Speaker 2: can refer you to the right to the right agency
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  Speaker 2: for your situation.
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  Speaker 1: Well INT Deputy Commissioner for Consumer Affairs, Rebecca Davey. We
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  Speaker 1: really appreciate your time this morning. Thanks for having a
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: chat with us.
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  Speaker 2: Not a problem. Thank you for having me Katie, thank
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  Speaker 2: you