Daniel Jeffrey reports:
Electronic prescription provider MediSecure has fallen victim to a “large scale” data breach, potentially putting Australians’ private medical information at risk and sparking a national approach from the federal government.
The company released a statement on its website – which is now otherwise inactive – this afternoon confirming the breach involved “personal and health information”.
“While we continue to gather more information, early indicators suggest the incident originated from one of our third-party vendors.”
The company provided a system to allow healthcare professionals like GPs to send prescriptions to patients electronically.
Read more at 9News.
Australia’s National Cyber Security Coordinator posted a notice on LinkedIn that indicates it was a ransomware attack:
Yesterday afternoon I was advised by a commercial health information organisation that it was the victim of a large-scale ransomware data breach incident.
I am working with agencies across the Australian Government, states and territories to coordinate a whole-of-government response to this incident.
The Australian Signals Directorate Australian Cyber Security Centre is aware of the incident and the Australian Federal Police is investigating.
We are in the very preliminary stages of our response and there is limited detail to share at this stage, but I will continue to provide updates as we progress while working closely with the affected commercial organisation to address the impacts caused by the incident.