Medibank share price slumps ahead of major shutdown and cybersecurity overhaul

The Medibank Private Ltd (ASX: MPL) share price is in the red on Friday amid news the company will be shutting down its systems to undertake a cybersecurity overhaul this weekend.

The company famously suffered a cyberattack in October that saw criminals take off with the personal – and often sensitive – data of 10 million Australians.

The Medibank share price is $2.975 right now, 0.17% lower than its previous close.

For comparison, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) is up 0.38% at the time of writing – spending its first morning in the green since Monday.

Let’s take a closer look at the latest from the private health insurance company.

Medibank share price slumps amid cyber shutdown news

The Medibank share price is defying the market’s gains this morning.

Meanwhile, the company is preparing to take its Medicare and ahm systems offline from 8:30pm AEDT tonight to strengthen its security protections and undertake maintenance. Its retail stores and customer contact centre will also close on Saturday.

It clarified there’s been no suspicious activity detected since 12 October and the company apologised for any inconvenience caused by this weekend’s works. Continuing:

This is the next necessary phase of our ongoing work to further safeguard our network, called ‘Operation Safeguard’.

Since the cybercrime we have bolstered existing monitoring, added further detection and forensics capability across the Medibank system and network, and have scaled up analytical support via specialist third parties.

IT security experts from Microsoft will be onsite at the company’s Melbourne headquarters to complete the operation, which has been in the planning stages for several weeks.

Latest on Medibank data hack

Medibank is also continuing to analyse stolen data the group behind its cyberattack published to the dark web.

It confirmed the number of customer files impacted by the breach remains the same. It will soon begin to contact customers who had limited provider related data made public, such as provider number, admission date and discharge date.

The Medibank share price is still 16% lower than it was before news of the attack broke. It is also down 14% year to date and 11% over the last 12 months.

Comparatively, the ASX 200 has dropped 5% in 2022 and 2% since this time last year.

The post Medibank share price slumps ahead of major shutdown and cybersecurity overhaul appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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Motley Fool contributor Brooke Cooper has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has positions in and has recommended Microsoft. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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