SA Health patients caught up in data breach of thirdparty platform Personify Care ABC News

pppSA Health patients caught up in data breach of thirdparty platform Personify CareppThousands of South Australian public health patients are being contacted over a data breach of a thirdparty run portalppThe state government said unintentional human error by patient portal Personify Care allowed an unauthorised third party to delete a folder used to store patient documents uploaded to an online platformppDepartment of Health and Wellbeing chief executive Dr Robyn Lawrence said the folder contained the health information of 121 patients on supervised medication protocolsppWhat they were uploading was basically copies of themselves taking their medication Dr Lawrence saidppThey were on supervised medication protocols so they were confirming to their doctors that they were taking their medication in line with the protocolsppThe state government said the folder also contained the name and phone number of 12624 patients That information was used to invite them to use the systemppHealth Minister Chris Picton said the files were deleted and there was no evidence that the data had been copied or downloadedppDr Lawrence described it as a disappointing incident but said patients should continue to use Personify CareppPlease dont stop using the system without speaking to your practitioner first she saidppMr Picton said Personify Care told them they were one of a number of organisations impacted by the incident and patients were being contacted directly by the companyppMr Picton said the government first learned about the data breach four days after it occurred on October 16 They were given a briefing on Tuesday ppThe latest incident is the second in as many weeks involving data from a government agency held by a thirdpartyppOpposition health spokeswoman Ashton Hurn said appropriate steps must be taken to ensure the integrity of the systemppTheres nothing more sensitive than our individual medical records so its incredibly concerning to learn that the records of more than a hundred South Australians were able to be tampered with particularly off the back of the Super SA cyber attack Ms Hurn saidppDr Lawrence said the deleted data had not been lost because there were backup copiesppAt this stage our advice is that theres no evidence that information has actually been taken away and its certainly not visible on the dark web through the processes that the digital agencies used she saidppPersonify Cares chief executive Ken Saman said the company had verified no other patient information was compromised and corrective measures had been put in place to prevent such incidents from recurringppWe have also confirmed the situation has been resolved and the risk to patient information has been mitigated Mr Saman said in a statementppThe incident was detected by our response team within two hours corrective measures were enacted and deleted data restored within the following two hoursppMonash University cybersecurity professor Nigel Phair said statistics showed the health sector was the hardest hit by data breaches because it had the juicer datappThe number one sector that gets hit with the most amount of data breaches is unsurprisingly is the health sector and thats been consistent through both the number and the amount Professor Phair saidppWhile the government has moved to assure patients that their data does not appear to have been downloaded or copied Professor Phair said any breach was of concernppI think people should be concerned every time there is a data breach he saidppEvery time there is the potential loss of personally identifying information of consumers is a really serious event and needs to be treated as suchppWe acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live learn and workppThis service may include material from Agence FrancePresse AFP APTN Reuters AAP CNN and the BBC World Service which is copyright and cannot be reproducedppAEST Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of GMT Greenwich Mean Timep