New Zealand launches review of medical portal hack
A projection of cyber code on a hooded man is pictured in this illustration picture taken on May 13, 2017. Capitalizing on spying tools believed to have been developed by the U.S. National Security Agency, hackers staged a cyber assault with a self-spreading malware that has infected tens of thousands of computers in nearly 100 countries. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/Illustration TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY
WELLINGTON, Jan 5 : New Zealand’s health ministry will look into the cause of a cybersecurity breach of a privately owned website, which hosts medical records for roughly a third of the country’s population and what extra protections are needed, the government said Monday.
The review would assess how the hackers were able to gain access, investigate the data protections in place and recommend improvements, Minister of Health Simeon Brown said in a statement.
“Patient data is incredibly personal and whether it is held by a public agency or a private company, it must be protected to the highest of standards,” Brown said. “We must learn from this incident.”
The website, Manage My Health, is used by many health centres in New Zealand and allows patients and providers to access medical records, lab results, book appointments and order prescriptions.
Auckland-owned Manage My Health said in a statement that a cybersecurity incident on December 30 meant that health documents from roughly 6 per cent to 7 per cent of the 1.8 million registered users may have been compromised. The gaps that allowed unauthorised access are now fixed, it said.
New Zealand newspaper The Post reported that a $60,000 ransom had been demanded to prevent the release of the documents.
