Australia's largest non-profit healthcare provider was hit by a cyberattack this week, resulting in data being stolen from its networks.
In a statement on Friday, St Vincent's Health Australia said it was working with the Australian government and state-level officials to resolve the cyber incident, which began on Tuesday.
The Australian National Office of Cyber Security confirmed that it is working with the hospital to respond to the incident.
No group had taken credit for the incident, the hospital explained, adding that it is still determining what kind of information was stolen.
St. Vincent's runs six public hospitals, 10 private hospitals and 20 elderly care facilities.
It has more than 20,000 employees across hospitals in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland.
Devastating attacks on prominent Australian institutions like Medibank, Latitude Financial, DP World Australia and Optus have roiled the Australian public over the last 16 months, prompting wholesale changes to the government's stance on cybersecurity.
The government - which dealt with its own data breach in Tasmania - published a revamped national cybersecurity strategy in November that will see nearly $400 million spent over the next seven years to address cybersecurity issues.
Hackers, particularly those involved in ransomware gangs, have repeatedly increased attacks on healthcare facilities during the holiday season in hopes of extracting larger ransoms while many IT teams are lightly staffed.
During the Christmas season in 2022, the LockBit ransomware gang was forced to apologize after attacking Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children, Canada's largest pediatric health center.
In the last week alone, ransomware gangs attempted to extort cancer patients after attacking a prominent cancer center in Seattle and forced a hospital in Kansas City to send patients to other facilities after bringing down their entire computer system.
Countries brace for influence operations, hacking campaigns ahead of historic 2024 election cycle.
Jonathan has worked across the globe as a journalist since 2014.
Before moving back to New York City, he worked for news outlets in South Africa, Jordan and Cambodia.
He previously covered cybersecurity at ZDNet and TechRepublic.
This Cyber News was published on therecord.media. Publication date: Fri, 22 Dec 2023 17:50:15 +0000