Monash Health, a Victorian public health service, has been affected by the hacking of ZircoDATA, a company based in Victoria that provides secure document storage, information governance, digital conversion, and destruction services to 9,000 clients across Australia. In February, ZircoDATA reported a breach in its system that led to the exposure of some historical documents belonging to Monash Health.
Some of Monash Health’s historical data relating to domestic violence victims was compromised in the hack. The data involved archived information from the family violence and sexual assault support units at Monash Medical Centre, the Queen Victoria Hospital, and Southern Health, limited to the period from 1970 to 1993. Eugine Yafele, chief executive of Monash Health, stated that investigations are ongoing and efforts are being made to investigate the breach in collaboration with ZircoDATA.
The ransomware gang Black Basta has claimed responsibility for the hacking of ZircoDATA and has accessed financial documents, personal information, and confidentiality deals totaling 395 gigabytes of data. The gang set a ransom deadline for the data breach. Lieutenant General Michelle McGuinness, National Cyber Security Coordinator mentioned that ZircoDATA and other government entities are still working to identify impacted data and individuals affected by the breach.
In a separate incident before the new year St Vincent’s Health reported a data breach by unknown hackers but confirmed that no sensitive data were compromised in the breach. The healthcare sector is continuously facing cybersecurity threats and organizations must remain vigilant to protect patient data and privacy.