“Agencies reported that the breach could be an attempt of ransom.”
The Australian Cyber Security Agency has confirmed the attempt of cyber-attack on Melbourne Heart Group. the agency successfully scrambled the sensitive data, which has a space leased from the Cabrini hospital in Malvern.
Attackers have breached data privacy of heart patients which was an attempt for a ransom amount.
A spoke person said, “As the matter is ongoing, it is not appropriate to comment further”.
Australian Police and Cyber Security Agency are jointly running this investigation. They concluded that medical files of more than 15,000 patients from a specialist cardiology unit are prone to attack.
The malware used is reportedly from North Korea or Russia, while the origin of the attackers is still unknown.
Dr. Michael Walsh said, “No Cabrini data storage or patient-related systems or operations have been impacted by this incident. There has been no breach of hospital patient data.”
Some patients were informed regarding their files had been lost without any explanation. Some have turned up for the appointment they have, but there was no record in the hospital as of now.
Australian Government agency is helping the hospital to recover from this data privacy breach and assisting the Cardiology Center with the data privacy policy and data privacy principles.
