- Oct 2, 2011
- 1,534
Hackers have broken into the medical files of a heart clinic at Melbourne's Cabrini Hospital and demanded a ransom after scrambling the data of about 15,000 patients.
The Age reports the organisation has been unable to access the files for weeks after the cybercrime syndicate used malware to cripple its server and demand a cryptocurrency payment to decrypt the data.
The malware is believed to have originated from Russia or North Korea, but the identity of the criminals hasn't been revealed and Australian security agencies are investigating.
An Australian Cyber Security Centre spokeswoman said it was recently alerted to a cyber security incident by the Melbourne Heart Group (MHG), a tenant at the Cabrini Hospital site in Malvern.
The centre has provided cyber security advice and assistance to MHG, and as the matter is ongoing it said it is inappropriate to comment further.
A Cabrini Hospital spokeswoman said it was unaffected by the hacking as it operated independently from the MHG.
"It doesn't have any link to Cabrini in any way, they're just a tenant of ours," she said.
The Age reports the organisation has been unable to access the files for weeks after the cybercrime syndicate used malware to cripple its server and demand a cryptocurrency payment to decrypt the data.
The malware is believed to have originated from Russia or North Korea, but the identity of the criminals hasn't been revealed and Australian security agencies are investigating.
An Australian Cyber Security Centre spokeswoman said it was recently alerted to a cyber security incident by the Melbourne Heart Group (MHG), a tenant at the Cabrini Hospital site in Malvern.
The centre has provided cyber security advice and assistance to MHG, and as the matter is ongoing it said it is inappropriate to comment further.
A Cabrini Hospital spokeswoman said it was unaffected by the hacking as it operated independently from the MHG.
"It doesn't have any link to Cabrini in any way, they're just a tenant of ours," she said.