Eastern Health has temporarily taken down its IT systems following a cyber incident earlier this week. The measures have been taken as a precaution, while the healthcare group attempts to understand and rectify the situation. It has also reassured the public that patient safety had not been compromised. The Incident has affected the healthcare provider’s ability to perform less urgent medical procedures, though urgent elective surgeries are going to continue as planned. In a statement Eastern Health said: “We apologise for the inconvenience this may cause. We thank our staff, patients and their families for patience during this situation and we will keep them informed.”
The Australian healthcare provider operates several hospitals in east Melbourne, and is one of many that has suffered a cyber-attack over the past year. Attackers have been targeting the healthcare industry and in 2020 alone the Australian Cyber Security Centre received 166 cyber security incident reports within the health sector. Jacqueline Jayne, security awareness advocate at KnowBe4 Asia-Pacific claims that: “Hospitals are a very attractive target for cyber criminals due to the nature of the information they hold on their patients. Information that, once obtained, can be used for identity theft and sold multiple times on the dark web. This is not only health-related data, as the addition of personally identifiable information is also there for the taking.”
