Medibank hacks and data breach could lead to largescale legal action

After the health information of some of its customers were posted on the dark web, law firm Maurice Blackburn confirmed it was reviewing whether customers affected by the hack could be entitled to compensation.

The firm's principal lawyer Andrew Watson said the breach of data was one of the most serious seen in Australia.

"Companies that hold their customers' sensitive health information have an important obligation to make sure that information is safeguarded, commensurate with the sensitivity of that data," he said.

"Medibank have a heightened responsibility ti out in place greater safeguards to secure the personal and health claim information it collected from its customers."

Data including names, phones numbers, Medicare numbers and sensitive health information was taken by the hackers during the breach.

As the government looks for solutions to improve cyber security laws, Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil has flagged it could soon be illegal for companies to pay ransom demands to hackers should they be subject to a data breach.

"The way we're thinking about the reform task ... is a bunch of quick wins, things that we can do fast, and the standing up for the new police operation is one of those," Ms O'Neil told the ABC's Insiders on Sunday.

"There's some really big policy questions that we're going to need to think about and consult on, and we're going to do that in the context of the cyber security strategy."

Federal police confirmed last week Russian hackers were behind the attack.

A 100 officer-strong, standing cybercrime operation targeting hackers will be led by the AFP and Australian Signals Directorate.

"We are not going to sit back while our citizens are treated this way and allow there to be no consequences for that," Ms O'Neil said.

"We are offensively going to find these people, hunt them down and debilitate them before they can attack our country."

Australian Associated Press