The Australian government is considering measures to outlaw the paying of ransoms to cyber criminals following a major data breach at the country’s largest health insurer.

In an interview with ABC television, the country’s home affairs minister Clare O'Neil said that the government would consider taking steps to make the paying of ransomware demands illegal following a spate of cyber attacks in the country.

In recent months, Medibank Private and Australia’s second-largest telecommunications company along with at least eight other large companies have suffered major breaches at the hand of hackers.

When asked whether the government planned on looking at measures to outlaw ransom payments to cyber criminals, the minister confirmed that "We will do that in the context of ... cyber strategy.

O’Neil was being interviewed after formalising a new cyber-policing model between the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and the Australian Signals Directorate. This new model would do “new tough policing” on cybercrime with around 100 officers as part of the new joint standing operation against cyber crime.

She said that the unit will “day in, day out, hunt down the scumbags who are responsible for these malicious crimes.”

News agency AFP this week claimed that Russia-based hackers were responsible for the Medibank breach and that data from around 10 million current and former customers was compromised.

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