The healthcare sector is facing an increasing number of cybersecurity threats, and organizations must remain vigilant to protect patient data and privacy. Recently, two major health organizations in Australia, Monash Health and St Vincent’s Health, announced data breaches by unknown hackers.
Monash Health, a Victorian public health service, was impacted by the hacking of ZircoDATA, a company based in Victoria that provides secure document storage, information governance, digital conversion, and destruction services to 9,000 clients across Australia. In February, ZircoDATA reported a breach in its system that led to the exposure of some historical documents belonging to Monash Health. The data involved archived information from the family violence and sexual assault support units at Monash Medical Centre, the Queen Victoria Hospital, and Southern Health, limited to the period from 1970 to 1993.
Monash Health’s chief executive Eugine Yafele stated that they have notified the National Office of Cyber Security about the breach and investigations are ongoing. Despite this breach, Monash Health assured the public that its systems have not been compromised or impacted by the cyber attack. Yafele expressed regret over the incident and stated that efforts are being made to investigate it in collaboration with ZircoDATA. Black Basta has claimed responsibility for the hacking of ZircoDATA and has accessed financial documents, personal information and confidentiality deals totaling 395 gigabytes of data.
On another hand St Vincent’s Health one of largest not-for-profit health care providers in Australia also suffered a data breach by unknown hackers before new year but they confirmed no sensitive data were compromised in this incident . As we can see there’s an urgent need for health organizations to take proactive measures against cyber threats to ensure patient’s sensitive information remains secure.