by Cam Lucadou-Wells
A cyberattack embroiling Monash Health has exposed personal details of victim-survivors of family violence and sexual assaults dating up to 50 years ago.
The data breach occurred at Victorian company ZircoDATA, which was used to scan archived historical documents at Monash Health.
It exposed archived data from the family violence and sexual assault support units at Monash Medical Centre, the Queen Victoria Hospital, and Southern Health from 1970-1993.
“We are deeply disappointed to be in this position and understand the distress this may cause any impacted clients,” Monash Health chief executive Eugine Yafele said in a statement on 3 May.
“We take any matter involving cybersecurity extremely seriously.
“Our team is working tirelessly and diligently to verify those who are impacted and understand what data was compromised.”
On 29 February, ZircoDATA reported that a third party accessed its system and “identified an allegation on the dark web that some of our data has been stolen”.
Yafele stated that Monash Health was “recently” informed that its data was involved. Monash Health’s own systems weren’t compromised, he stated.
“Monash Health is deeply sorry that the external breach has occurred, and we continue to work with ZircoDATA in the investigation.
“Our number one priority is providing support to those people who may be impacted by this breach.”
Monash Health has set up a dedicated cyber-breach support line at 1800 491 663 for people who may be impacted.
More information is also available at monashhealth.org/cyber
