One of ‘s leading IVF clinics has launched an ‘urgent’ investigation into a widescale cyber attack which may have leaked the information of thousands of patients.
Genea chief executive Tim Yeoh informed past and present customers of breach by an ‘unauthorised third party’ has accessed its data, on Wednesday after being notified of suspicious activity on its network.
The company, which is one of ‘s top three IVF providers with 21 clinics across the country, took some of its systems offline as it investigates the hack.
‘We are urgently investigating the nature and extent of data that has been accessed and the extent to which it contains personal information,’ Mr Yeoh said, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
He added that Genea was doing its best to ensure expecting parents’ scheduled appointments continued uninterrupted.
‘If you do not hear from your local Genea clinic, there is no change to your current treatment schedule,’ Mr Yeoh said.
‘We sincerely apologise for any concern this incident may cause you and want to reassure you that we take your privacy and the security of your data very seriously.’
News of the cyber attack comes just five days after Genea reported a phone outage at several clinics.
The company’s website flagged the outage was an ongoing issue on Wednesday afternoon.
A Genea spokesperson said the company is doing all it can to contain the security threat.
‘We are urgently investigating a cyber incident after identifying suspicious activity on our network,’ they said.
‘As soon as we detected the incident, we took immediate steps to contain the incident and secure our systems.
‘We have since engaged cyber experts to assist us with our response and investigation and we are liaising with the n Cyber Security Centre.
‘The protection of our staff and patients’ information is our utmost priority. We apologise for any concern or inconvenience that this incident has caused and will provide patients with relevant updates as we learn more.’
Genea was unable to to confirm whether sensitive patient information was accessed.
‘We will communicate with any affected individuals if our investigation identifies any evidence that their personal information has been impacted, consistent with our legal and regulatory obligation,’ the company added.
Daily Mail has contacted Genea for further comment.