Personal Data of More Than 73,000 Patients Affected in Cyberattack On Eye Clinic

SINGAPORE: Personal data and clinical information of 73,466 patients were affected in a cyberattack on private practice Eye & Retina Surgeons earlier this month, with the root causes of the incident under investigation.

The affected data included patients’ names, addresses, identity card numbers, contact details and clinical information. No credit card or bank account information was accessed or compromised, the specialist eye clinic said in a press release on Wednesday (Aug 25).

The “illegal and sophisticated ransomware cyberattack” was carried out by an unknown party on Aug 6, said the clinic.

It affected servers and several computer terminals at the clinic’s branch in Camden Medical. The IT system at the clinic’s branch in Mount Elizabeth Novena Specialist Centre was not affected.

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“To optimise data security, (Eye & Retina Surgeons) maintains segregated networks and active medical records are maintained separately on a cloud-based system and thus were not accessed or compromised,” the clinic added.

None of the practice’s clinical operations were affected, and its IT systems have been securely restored, it said.

The clinic said there has been no known release of sensitive data into the public domain to date, and that it will continue to monitor the situation closely.

“Patients are now being progressively informed of this cyber-incident,” it added.

The incident has been reported to the police, the Personal Data Protection Commission and the Singapore Computer Emergency Response Team (SingCERT).

Eye & Retina Surgeons said that its IT team has been working closely with the Cybersecurity Agency of Singapore (CSA) and the Ministry of Health (MOH) to investigate the root causes of the incident.

“All necessary measures to prevent a recurrence of this breach will be taken,” said the clinic, adding that it was working with cybersecurity experts and authorities to identify any potential areas in its IT systems that can be further secured.

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“(Eye & Retina Surgeons) regrets this breach and wishes to assure its patients that it takes patient confidentiality very seriously,” the clinic said.

This article originally appeared in CNA here.