NATIONAL HEALTH LAB CONFIRMS CYBER ATTACK
A security breach caused the National Health Laboratory Service’s (NHLS) IT systems and infrastructure to be compromised.
The NHLS confirmed that the cyber attack took place on Saturday morning and that it's working to rectify the problem.
Mzi Gcukumana, the NHLS’s communication, marketing and PR officer confirmed that no patient data has been affected.
“Preliminary investigation suggests that our Enterprise Resource Planning (Oracle) environment, Laboratory Information System (LIS) (TrakCare) database, and CDW are not affected. Therefore, no patient data has been lost or compromised. All patient data is safe.”
The NHLS’s internal investigation indicated that a ransomware virus was used to target selected points in the NHLS IT systems. This led to the systems being inaccessible and blocking communication from the LIS and other databases to and from users.
“All our systems remain inaccessible both internally and externally, including to and from healthcare facilities.”
Gcukumana said that they’re unable to give a timeframe for the restoration of the systems.
“Unfortunately, this will take time, and investigations thus far have not advanced enough for us to give a timeframe.”
Image credit: Fierce Healthcare