Russian man Aleksandr Ermakov has been sanctioned over the Medibank data breach. What happens now?
By Liana Walker | ABC News | 23th Jan 2024
Interview with Professor Richard Buckland
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The Australian government has used Magnitsky-style sanctions for the first time to punish Russian man Aleksandr Ermakov over what it says is his role in the 2022 Medibank Private data breach.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong, Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil and Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles made the announcement on Tuesday morning.
But what exactly are the sanctions, what impact could they have and how effective are these laws in curbing cyber crime?
What sanctions have been imposed?
The sanctions are inspired by Sergei Magnitsky, a Ukrainian-born Russian lawyer and tax adviser who uncovered widespread corruption carried out by Russian tax and law enforcement officials.
The laws allow countries to sanction individuals rather than regimes or governments.
The Australian government has imposed a targeted financial sanction and a travel ban on Mr Ermakov.
University of New South Wales cyber crime professor Richard Buckland told ABC News Channel the problem with cyber crime was that it was borderless and attacks were often carried out across national borders.
"In practice, he's probably not going to be largely impacted, I imagine, at least until relations get better with Russia," Professor Buckland said.
"It seems silly to say symbolic, but it's very symbolic."
Cyber crime is something affecting us all in awful ways and it's nice to see slowly the dial is changing and hopefully international co-operation will continue to increase and will allow there to be consequences now.
Professor Buckland said although this was a first for Australia, America had been sanctioning cyber criminals for a while.
"Where they have a foothold in that country, then it's possible to seize assets," he said.
"But of course, the criminal is just an individual working for a criminal gang based in Russia. They don't necessarily have a lot of resources overseas."
He said countries could impact people with sanctions, as seen during Russia's war with Ukraine.
"Some oligarchs lost their yachts," he said. "Some didn't but some did.
"I think this is essentially the first line of people losing their equivalent of yachts.
"There won't be a lot of impact initially but it will make life less comfortable for Ermakov."
How effective will these sanctions be in curbing cyber crime?
Professor Buckland said the move sent the message that Australia was taking cyber crime seriously.
"This is no longer, 'It's happening overseas so there's nothing we can do about it,'" he said.
But, he said, change would take time
"This isn't a flick a switch and it's over," he said.
"It's sending signs and encouragement to our allies [that] this is a good course of action and possible to do.
"Really, this is only going to be possible when countries all collaborate. No one country can solve this problem or global warming or so many of the world's problems.
