Ransomware encrypts Patient Records at Australian Heart Clinic

2019, Breaches, February

Who: Melbourne Heart Group at the Cabrini Hospital

 # of Accounts Breached: 15,000 patients

When it happened: February 20, 2019

What happened: Ransomware Attack

How it happened: A ransomware attack recently hit the cardiology unit at the private Cabrini Hospital in Malvern, Melbourne, encrypting medical files. The medical files of approximately 15,000 patients are thought to have been left scrambled by the ransomware, with the only hope of recovery being restored from an unaffected backup (if available) or the submission of a ransom payment to the extortionists.

Outcome: The Melbourne Heart Group, which is based at the hospital, has not been able to access some of its patients’ medical data for more than three weeks. According to some reports, a ransom payment may have been paid, but some of the files may continue to be inaccessible. It’s bad enough when an organization’s data is held ransom by online criminals, but when the data that is being held hostage actually contains the medical information of patients who may have serious heart conditions, things become all the more serious.