Singapore's largest healthcare group, SingHealth, has suffered a massive information breach that allowed hackers to snatch personal information on 1.5 ane chiliad 1000 patients who visited SingHealth clinics betwixt May 2015 together with July 2018.
SingHealth is the largest healthcare grouping inwards Singapore with two third hospitals, 5 national specialty , together with 8 polyclinics.
According to an advisory released past times Singapore's Ministry of Health (MOH), along with the personal data, hackers likewise managed to stole 'information on the outpatient dispensed medicines' of close 160,000 patients, including Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, together with few ministers.
"On iv July 2018, IHiS' database administrators detected odd action on ane of SingHealth’s information technology databases. They acted instantly to stop the activity," MOH said.
The stolen information includes the patient's name, address, gender, race, engagement of birth, together with National Registration Identity Card (NRIC) numbers.
The Ministry of Health said the hackers "specifically together with repeatedly" targeted the PM's "personal particulars together with information on his outpatient dispensed medicine."
So far there's no bear witness of who was behind the attack, but the MOH stated that the cyber assault was "not the operate of casual hackers or criminal gangs." The local media is likewise speculating that the hack could last a operate of state-sponsored hackers.
Investigations past times the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) together with the Integrated Health Information System (IHiS) likewise confirmed that "this was a deliberate, targeted, together with well-planned cyberattack."
PM Comments On SingHealth Healthcare Data Breach
Commenting on the cyber assault through a Facebook postal service published today, Singapore's Prime Minister said he believes that the attackers are "extremely skilled together with determined" together with they convey "huge resources" to deport such cyber attacks repeatedly.
"I don’t know what the attackers were hoping to find. Perhaps they were hunting for some nighttime province hush-hush or at to the lowest degree something to embarrass me. If so, they would convey been disappointed," Singapore PM said. "My medication information is non something I would unremarkably tell people about, but nada is alarming inwards it."The Singapore regime has assured its citizens that no medical records were tampered, or deleted together with that no diagnoses, exam results, or doctors' notes were stolen inwards the attack.
All affected patients volition last contacted past times the healthcare establishment over the side past times side 5 days.
Since the healthcare sector is occupation of the critical nation's infrastructure, amongst water, electricity, together with transport, it has increasingly larn an attractive target for hackers.
In the past times few years, nosotros convey reported several hacks together with information breaches, targeting the healthcare sector. Just final month, it was revealed that DNA registries of to a greater extent than than 92 ane chiliad 1000 MyHeritage customers were stolen inwards the previous yr past times some unknown hackers.
Earlier this year, it was reported that to a greater extent than than half of Norway's population exposed its healthcare information inwards a massive information breach that targeted the country's major healthcare organization.
The inaugural matter to protect against whatsoever information breach is to remain vigilant, equally nobody knows when or where your stolen identities volition last used. So, affected consumers volition but convey to remain mindful.
