The medical group behind Warrnambool’s Medicare Urgent Health Clinic says it’s still working to discover the extent and nature of information stolen in a recent cyber breach.
What happened? Epichealth, which operates four clinics across Ocean Grove and Portarlington on the Bellarine Peninsula and Warrnambool, said in a statement last Wednesday an “unauthorised third party” accessed a part of its IT systems.
The breach: On October 31, Epichealth was listed on a ransomware monitoring site as having been targeted by The Gentlemen, an online ransomware group reportedly based in Russia.
Ransomware is typically known to lock organisations out of their own files and demand payment to re-open them.
What was stolen? Epichealth told the Brolga it believed the information breached by hackers may have included personal patient information, but independent cyber security experts were able to safely restore the breached systems.
“Our investigation has identified that some personal information held in our systems may have been accessed, and work to establish the nature and extent of the information involved is continuing,” a spokesperson said.
The health provider has published a notice on its website providing patients with steps on how to protect the information that may have been accessed, such as Medicare cards, contact details and addresses.
“Epichealth does not typically collect copies of patient identity documents, and does not hold patient bank or credit card details.”
Investigations continue: A spokesperson said Epichealth was aware of “claims made online about our practice by an unauthorised external party”.
“We are working urgently with our cyber security experts to verify those claims,” the spokesperson said.
“We have notified the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner and the Australian Cyber Security Centre about the incident, and we will continue to assess any further notification obligations as our investigation continues.”
Epichealth’s clinics, including Warrnambool’s urgent care clinic, remain open to patients.