Lucy Kraimer
WELLINGTON, Jan 5 (Reuters) – New Zealand's Health Ministry is investigating the cause of a cybersecurity breach at a private website that hosts health records for about a third of the country's population and what additional protections are needed, the government said on Monday.
The review will assess how the hackers were able to gain access, examine existing data protections and “recommend improvements,” Health Minister Simeon Brown said in a statement.
“Patient data is incredibly personal, and whether it is held by a government agency or a private company, it must be protected to the highest standards,” Brown said. “We must learn from this incident.”
The Manage My Health website is used by many New Zealand health centers and allows patients and healthcare providers to access medical records, test results, book appointments and order prescriptions.
Auckland-based Manage My Health said in a statement that a cybersecurity incident on Dec. 30 meant the health records of about 6% to 7% of its 1.8 million registered users may have been compromised. The gaps that allowed unauthorized access have now been fixed, he said.
New Zealand newspaper The Post reported that a ransom of $60,000 was demanded to prevent the documents from being made public.
(Reporting by Lucy Craymer; Editing by Lincoln Feast)
