Clare O’Neil, the minister for home affairs and cybersecurity, confirmed to Australia’s public broadcaster ABC that the government was looking at criminalizing extortion payments as part of the government’s cyber strategy.The announcement follows several large security incidents affecting the country, including most significantly the data breach of Medibank, one of the country’s largest health insurance providers.It could also provide the ransomware gangs with another lever to extort their victims — if a company does pay a demand to save the business, the hackers could potentially demand a second extortion payment to keep the first one quiet.We are offensively going to find these people, hunt them down, and debilitate them before they can attack our country.”In a government statement announcing the operation, the Australians said it would “investigate, target and disrupt cyber criminal syndicates with a priority on ransomware threat groups,” prioritizing groups “based on the harm they can cause and the threat to our national interests.”It follows a coalition of government cybersecurity leaders from nearly 40 countries earlier this month reaffirming their plans to work together to stamp out ransomware attacks.The initiative will establish a voluntary International Counter Ransomware Task Force, helmed by Australia’s government, to boost information sharing about threats and track the finances of ransomware gangs, according to a fact sheet that accompanied the joint statement."