eHealthNews.nz: Information Governance

Full inquiry into Waikato cyber attack

Wednesday, 30 June 2021  

NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

Health Minister Andrew Little speaks to ParliamentThere will be a “full, independent inquiry” into the Waikato DHB cyber-attack to provide a clear picture of what happened and what lessons can be learned for the future, the Health Minister says.

The DHB was hit by a ransomware attack on May 18, causing a full outage of its Information Services across the region.

Patient and staff details stolen during the attack have now been posted online by the cyber criminals.

Health Minister Andrew Little spoke about the attack during an emergency debate in Parliament on June 29, promising a full independent inquiry, once the DHB has remediated their systems and returned to business as usual.

The inquiry will look into the state of the system before the ransomware attack and the quality of the DHB’s response.

“This will give us a very clear picture about what happened, why it happened, what more could be done and, as we embark on the health reforms and prepare ourselves for a new entity that will be responsible for all of our hospitals, there will be stuff that we can learn that will apply,” the Minister said.

No country or organisation is immune from cyberattack and “those attacks can come from any quarter of the world, at any time and so we must be prepared”, he told parliament.

Public organisations have a public duty to maintain and protect the integrity of the data they hold and cyber security, “should be absolutely integral to the design and implementation of information systems.

“Cyber-attacks are a reality of the modern day world, and the expectation is on those stewards of information systems to be taking every proportionate and appropriate step to provide protection to information held by organisations,” said Minister Little. 

“I want to acknowledge the patients and staff whose information was held by the Waikato District Health Board, who have now had that information compromised and… had that information placed on other websites and other platforms and is now accessible to others around the world,” the Minister said. 

The DHB has a system to contact people who are identified as having had their information compromised.

“And to the best extent possible, let them know the nature and extent of the information that has been compromised, and then to work with that person to provide the support that is necessary,” he said. 

People are also entitled to go to the office of the Privacy Commissioner.

Minister Little said the DHB is still in the process of remediating what has happened and many systems are back online, but Waikato is not back to normal yet.

 
Picture: Health Minister Andrew Little speaks to Parliament

 

If you would like to provide feedback on this news story, please contact the editor Rebecca McBeth.

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