No need to change Medicare cards after data breach: government

The investigation into the “large scale” incident continues to be in its early phases, National Cyber Security Coordinator Lieutenant-General Michelle McGuinness, mentioned in an replace this morning.

She mentioned there was nothing to recommend Medicare playing cards must be changed or that there is a heightened risk to different well being suppliers.

“From the information that is currently available to the government, no current e-prescriptions have been impacted or accessed,” McGuinness mentioned.

“The Department of Health has confirmed there has been no impact to the e-prescription services currently in use.

“On the premise of technical recommendation from MediSecure up to now, the unique compromise has been remoted and there’s no proof to recommend an elevated cyber risk to the medical sector.

“We are looking closely at any evidence about whether identity documents have been compromised in the breach, and are working with MediSecure, Services Australia, and state and territory credential-issuing bodies to build a full picture of the impacted dataset.

“We haven’t seen proof thus far to recommend that anybody wants to switch their Medicare card.

“If our investigation turns up any evidence to suggest Australians’ identities are at risk and they need to replace their documents, we will let them know.”

Exactly how many individuals have been caught up within the breach on the e-prescription supplier stays unknown, however McGuinness mentioned affected sufferers could be advised what they should do as soon as the investigation had progressed.

“We are still working to build a picture of the size and nature of the data that has been impacted by this data breach impacting MediSecure,” she mentioned.

“This discovery work often takes time and I understand Australians are anxious about the possibility of their personal information being affected.

“I need to guarantee everybody that we’re working as quick as we will to finish our evaluation and when we’ve additional data to share about what has been impacted, we are going to share this with you – together with what affected folks might have to do to guard themselves.”