Hackers attacked some health services in the Midlands region last week.
The Pinnacle Midlands Health Network reported the breach on September 28th, affecting some of the IT services of the Pinnacle Group’s regional offices and Primary Health Care Ltd.’s general practice across Taranaki, Rotorua, Taupo Turangi, Thames Coromandel and Waikato. impacted.
A statement Tuesday said the network, which serves approximately 450,000 patients at 87 clinics, said the affected IT was “quickly taken offline and contained.”
However, malicious actors have already accessed sensitive information from the system, “which could include commercial and personal details.”
Justin Butcher, CEO of the network’s parent company, Pinnacle Inc., said:
He added that it “takes time” to find out what data has been accessed.
Pinnacle said it does not hold information like GP memos, but it does hold personal information such as names, addresses and national health indices.
Butcher, meanwhile, said he had already put contingency plans into action and had launched a detailed investigation with the police, Te Fatu Ora and other relevant government agencies. We also notified the Privacy Commissioner of the incident.
Pinnacle also signed a deal with IDCARE (National Identification and Cyber Support Community Service). IDCARE provides free expert support to individuals deemed to be at high risk of information exposure. The service advises current and former Pinnacle patients to “keep vigilant” about the risk of fraud.
Affected clinics continue to operate, but Pinnacle advises patients may experience delays in contacting some clinics.
“We know people are very concerned about this, of course. We want to assure the public that it is of the utmost importance.
In a separate statement, Te Whatu Ora claimed that Pinnacle’s cyberattack “does not represent a threat to the Te Whatu Ora network” because its systems are separate from Pinnacle’s.
“Although Pinnacle is a private company, Te Fatu Ora assists the organization in its investigations and supports its efforts to comply with relevant cybersecurity best practices and policies,” the company said.
the bigger trend
A year after the last hack, the cybersecurity of medical services in the Midlands area appears to remain vulnerable. On May 18th last year, the former Waikato District Health Board announced: A ransomware attack brought your IT system to a complete halt. A hacker claimed to have released sensitive patient information from his DHB to the dark web.
