Australian lawmakers battle to contain dark web data breach

CANBERRA - The Australian government is doing "absolutely everything possible" to protect its citizens' private data, after it was revealed that healthcare data was on sale on the dark web.

On Tuesday, an investigation undertaken by the Guardian Australia revealed that private Medicare data was being sold online by someone claiming to have "exploited a vulnerability" in the federal government's online servers.

The vendor claims to have sold the details of at least 75 Australians, while a journalist for Guardian Australia claimed to have purchased his own details for $22.

In a statement released on Tuesday, Australia's Human Services Minister Alan Tudge said the revelations have "been referred to the Australian Federal Police".

"I have received assurances that the data obtained by the journalist was not sufficient to access any personal health record," Tudge said.

"Any apparent unauthorized access to Medicare card numbers is nevertheless of great concern."

Expanding on the matter when speaking to Sky News on Tuesday, Assistant Minister to the Treasurer Michael Sukkar said he was "very confident" that citizens' data was secure.

"We take extraordinarily seriously the data that we hold in relation to individuals that obviously we collect in order to service them through government programs, and it's very alarming if that data is making its way into hands that it shouldn't," Sukkar said.

"I'm very confident that the protection of data and cybersecurity is being ably led by (Cyber Security Minister) Dan Tehan, and it's something that this government takes very seriously."

However, the minister admitted the government needed to be prepared for attempted breaches more often in the future, as the private data of citizens continues to move onto the internet.

"This is going to be an ongoing issue as more and more of our information is ultimately collected and stored online. The government are going to need to be much better at protecting that data," Sukkar said.

Xinhua