JAKARTA - The New Zealand government has launched a comprehensive review of the hacking incident of a private medical portal that stores the health data of about a third of the country's population. The Ministry of Health will trace the cause of the cyber leak while assessing the additional protection needed to prevent similar incidents.
Health Minister Simeon Brown said in a statement on Monday, January 5, that the review would examine how hackers gained access, evaluate the data protection systems in place, and develop recommendations for improvements. He stressed that patient data is highly personal and must be protected to the highest standards, regardless of whether it is managed by a public institution or a private company. "We must learn from this incident," said Brown.
The target site, Manage My Health, is used by many health care centers in New Zealand. This platform allows patients and medical personnel to access medical records, laboratory results, make appointments, and even manage prescriptions. The Auckland-based management company stated that the cyber security incident on December 30 potentially compromised health documents of about 6% to 7% of the total 1.8 million registered users.
Manage My Health added that the loophole that allowed unauthorized access has now been fixed. However, local media The Post reported that hackers demanded a ransom of 60,000 New Zealand dollars to prevent the publication of stolen documents. The government has not confirmed the details of the demands.
The case once again highlights the increasing cybersecurity risks in the health sector, where the digitization of services is fast-paced while data protection is often lagging behind. In an era when medical records have moved to the digital cloud, a small gap can have a big impact - not only on the system, but on public trust.
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