Health Ministry probes report on medical records leak

The Ministry of Health views seriously and is investigating a report that 19,992 radiology examinations in Malaysia face the risk of patients’ information exposures.

Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad said the ministry had held a special meeting yesterday with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) and the National Cyber Security Agency to identify the cause of the exposures.

‘’The lessons from the Greenbone Networks report and cyberattacks taking place worldwide show that we have entered a new era of cyber threats.

‘’The threat to cybersecurity is continuous and requires much more skills and expert manpower to tackle it,’’ Dzulkefly said in a statement.

He said that it could take place in any health facility, including private hospital services and medical centres at higher institutions of learning, and the Health Ministry would reveal the latest development on the issue from time to time.

At the meeting yesterday, the ministry also discussed actions that would be taken to contain cyber threats and among the immediate measures being undertaken was the mapping of exposure risks at all health facilities.

MOH was also reviewing the exposure risks at all hospitals using the Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) and upgrading the characteristics and level of security of applications and information technology infrastructures at all health facilities continuously.

On Sept 16, Greenbone Networks, a cybersecurity company, revealed that the medical records of patients in 52 countries, including Australia, China, Japan, United Kingdom, France, United States, Russia and Brazil have been leaked online.

- Bernama